LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

%Ii Snpijns^llla 

Shelf ...-5.i2.S 

UNITE!) STATES OF AMERICA. 



••VS*'' 



CHURCH COVERNMENT. 



A TREATISE 



COMPILED FROM HIS LECTURES IN THEO- 
LOGICAL SEMINARIES. 



V 

BY y 

ALEXANDER T^^IcGILL, 

Emeritus Pbofessor at Princeton. 



■^■^5- 




Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.' 



PHILADKT.PFriA : 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 

AND SABBATII-SCII(X)L WORK, 

l;i31 CHESTNUT STRKHI'. 



:bV6 5o 



COPYRIGHT, 1888, BY 

THE TRUSTEES OF THE 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 
AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 



The Library 
OF Congress 

WASHINGTON 



Westcott & Thomson. 
Stereofypers and Elecirolifpers, Philada. 



PREFACE 



The substance of over forty years' teaching on church 
government is condensed in the following pages. These 
teachings were not the same through all generations in 
course at the seminary, but varied in form and extension 
from time to time in order to face the changing aspect of 
controversy in this field of study, where so many questions 
are open still, and problems which, though settled once, 
are unsettled again. A tardy compliance with formal 
petitions of successive classes to have my lectures pub- 
lished will perhaps exhibit much that was not heard in 
the class-room by any one particular class, and much 
may be remembered that seems to be omitted here. 
But all may discern, I think, that there has been no 
change of principles in the granite foundation of my 
own convictions, laid by the Bible as interpreted by 
Westminster literature of the seventeenth century, and 
the reproduction thereof, with lucid and masterly ex- 
position, by Drs. John M. Mason and Samuel Miller, 
in the first half of this century. 

Of course I am indebted to these and like sources for 
many a thought, and the assimilation is now so complete 
that it cannot be solved or assigned to this and that 
derivation. But I write as a teacher more than as an 
author, and the intelligent reader will see that the man 
who stands by his standards in attempting to teach " the 



4 PREFACE. 

generation following" must give what he has received 
rather than what he has contrived. I claim invention 
of order more than of thoughts and words, independence 
in managing the premises, guiding the conclusion and 
handling the logic of events. 

God's word is my text-book, and its lines referred to 
are quoted, for the most part, in full on these pages to 
save the reader time and trouble in pondering citations. 
Certain words and phrases must be capital in such a 
book as this; they are used as keys continually to 
indicate the scope, design and distinctive nature of such 
a work. These are, in this case, ^'representation,'' 
'^ organization," "private judgment," "spiritual des- 
potism," and the like. So, also, there must be some 
repetition of idea in the application of the same thought 
to another side of the main subject or a subsequent step 
in the same movement. Yet redundancy in this way 
will hardly be observed when the reader's mind is fairly 
occupied with the consecutive drift of an argument. 

Words from the inspired Scripture are sometimes in- 
serted in the original form, especially Greek ; but these 
are accompanied with translation, and in such a connec- 
tion as to be understood by readers not acquainted with 
that ancient laupuao^e. For mv readers will see throus^h- 
out the volume that ruling elders, whether learned or un- 
learned, are a leading order, in the writer's judgment, to 
be undei-stood, instructed and animated with ever-increas- 

Alexander T. McGill. 

Princeton, 1888. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Introduction 7 



CHAPTER I. 
There is a Form Given 25 

CHAPTER II. 

ECCLESIA 48 

CHAPTER III. 
The Ecclesiastical Institute 80 

CHAPTER IV. 
Constituency of the Church 96 

CHAPTER V. 
Constituency of the Church (continued) Ill 

CHAPTER VI. 
Officers of the Church 143 

CHAPTER VII. 
Prelatical Succession 173 

CHAPTER Vni. 
The True Doctrine of Succession in the Ministry . . . 201 

5 



6 ajyri'JM's. 

CHAPTER IX. 

PAGE 

Permanent Officers of the Church 219 

CHAPTER X. 
Parity of Ministers 243 

CHAPTER XI. 
Ruling Elders 277 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Qualifications of Ruling Elders 334 

CHAPTER XIII. 
The Deacons 360 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Ordination to Office . . , 402 

CHAPTER XV. 

JUDICATORIKS 433 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Judicatories in Gradation 455 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Constitutional Importance of the General Assembly . . 507 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Ordinances of the Chlrch 523 



INTRODUCTION. 



The main embarrassment of Christianity is a conflict 
within between the forms and the substance of true re- 
ligion. Forms, however, in such contrariety must be 
false and alien, so far as they distort a fair expression 
or clog a free propagation of the truth revealed in the 
word of God. For the moulds of divine evangelism 
can be no more opposed to its meaning than the natural 
configuration of the human body can be unfavorable to 
the development of life and the activities of the soul in 
its habitation here. Therefore, to have discrimination 
fitted for the day in which we live, and to cultivate our 
talents for a seasonable service in defence of the gospel, 
we should learn assiduously what are the forms of polity 
which God approves as best for the purity, permanence 
and glory of his kingdom on earth. 

We should beware of indifferentism here, and that 
extreme simplification which would eliminate body and 
figure from the elementary conception or ultimate idea of 
the Church in the world. Because we confront the tra- 
ditional arrogance which makes her altogether visible in 
time, we are not to err at the opposite extreme of notion 
that she is nothing to speak of in one visible form more 
than another ; that her mission to man in the body has 
no body itself in the contact of persuasion ; that visible 
ordinances are only conventional forms of quietism, and 

7 



\ 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

the communion of embodied humanity witli an invisible 
Head in heaven must be impalpable as the rounds of 
Jacob's ladder in the vision of a dream. 

Fancy like this in generalization reverses the tenor of 
sacred history, which made the mystical precede the real, 
and typical theophanies go before the actual incarnation 
of our Lord. And when the AYord was made flesh, 
calling himself '^this temple," for our eyes to see and 
our hands to handle, can we say that his Church he 
came to " build " is a phantom in definition and not to 
be seen henceforth, in its right shape for Jew or Gentile, 
as anything else than a babel of every pattern, without 
even an outline prescribed by him or his apostles? 
Carried even to the invisible things which are made, 
this lax imagination reckons absurdly on the whole 
creation that is not seen as chaotic and void of organiza- 
tion. Invisible gravitation organizes a visible universe. 
Magnetic attraction and electric power make forms and 
movements of manifest order, in many things visible 
and used, with which organized life is ever progressing. 
And shall these energies of nature do more to regulate 
ordinary life than the power of grace and truth, which 
came by Jesus Christ, to make a becoming visibility in 
the Church they create ? There is a " temple " to be 
thought of in the abode of spirits on liigh — organism, of 
course, in the Church invisible and triumphant, accord- 
ing to the Apocalypse of prophecy — where there is no 
temple to be seen. The immanence of that eternal Spirit 
who garnished the heavens at first is there essentially 
active in organizing alike what is seen and what is not 
seen. 

Christ, who is formed within us the hope of glory, had 
a body like ours prepared and given to him, and what was 



INTRODVCTION. 9 

given to him he gives to the Church he redeemed. " Body, 
soul and spirit" are sanctified by union to him. And the 
mystical incorporation of which he is Head must, of course, 
be seen and unseen both, and organization made alike, in 
the visible and invisible constitution of such an exist- 
ence. Morover, the most radical idea to be formed of 
this incorporation is in the analogy of our bodies and 
members — the eye, the ear, the hand, the foot — the in- 
terdependence of these and their common relation to the 
head as well as to each other, and the whole complexity 
a perfect organization. The most elementary conception 
of the Church, therefore, must be inadequate and too 
simple to be true which leaves organism out. Error is 
always more simple than truth. And the rage for sim- 
plicity, which turns the Church to a dogma for the sake 
of a clear-cut definition, will hazard the loss of her 
nature as it is revealed in the Scriptures and ascertained 
in all history and observation. 

Abstractions will never define and mysticism will 
never unite the Church. Her nature is concrete. The 
gospel is a religion of facts, and the revelation which 
contains it is history more than philosophy promulged 
for the redemption of man. We must go, therefore, to 
the Bible for the delineation we seek and the discussions 
we propose. The word of God in both Testaments will 
give us a unit of organism in the features of an ever- 
lasting Church " which in continuance Avere fashioned," 
and this no " shadowy model." When the shadows of 
type and ceremony, priesthood and altar, sacrifice and 
incense, were made to pass away at the fulness of time, 
and we look to Jesus, with his apostles, to '' show us the 
form of the house and the fashion thereof," we see it in 
their conduct, example and teaching. We see them 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

going to church, recognizing the substance when the 
shadows were fleeing from 'Hhe true light which lighteth 
every man that cometh into the world." 

Dr. Charles Hodge has well said in What is Preshy- 
terianismf that "the Church is a self-governing society 
distinct from the State, having its officers and laws, and 
therefore an administrative government of its own ;" 
" it is a theocracy '^ " limited and guided by the Script- 
ures" "in the hands of legitimate officers." Such a 
description of the Church on earth suffices to indicate 
organization as a predicate thereof — fii*st and last, visible 
and invisible, "the ultimate idea" as well as primary 
and elemental. Objectively considered, it is form and 
order positively instituted ; subjectively considered, the 
faith which unites us to Christ, the Head, unites us to 
one another as members. This union, both visible and 
invisible, must of course, be organized by regulations of 
mutual duty emanating from the Head himself. 

" The true light " which came in the advent of Christ 
at the incarnation of his person was no torch of revolu- 
tion, nor even flame. of reformation, to the progress of 
man, consuming the arches behind which spanned, as it 
were, an abyss between the Old Testament and the New. 
It was the " sun of righteousness " by which we could 
see, descended and descending, past, present and future, 
an organized ecclesia waiting for its own conversion to 
the Christian faith. Subsisting through all varieties of 
patriarchal, judicial and regal theocracy for ages, and at 
length manned with Jewish bigotry, it was, nevertheless, 
a peculiar machinery of order found intact and suitable 
for all the purposes of Christianity while time endures. 

It is designed in the following pages to prove the 
recognition and continuance of this plan by the foundei's 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

of the New-Testament Church as a liberal form of gov- 
ernmeut well tried and safe not only, but a conspicuous 
link for identity of the Church under all dispensations 
and diversities of ministration by the same Spirit — pro- 
phetically and exegetically and ecclesiastically one and 
the same Church. Elderships of old became in apostolic 
times the true "historical episcopate '^ of the Christian 
Church. Elders and deacons alone made up the min- 
istry of orders in primitive time, as the sacred records 
attest, making elder and bishop convertible terms for 
one and the same office. 

It was not in the scheme of salvation designed that an 
interval between the Testaments should become a chasm 
in the external history of redemption more than the in- 
ternal. It was in all respects a '^ fulness '' of institution 
as well as of doctrine, and the only change to be made 
was the abolition of prefigurative appointment in the 
temple and its threefold ministry, with all the ceremony 
and ritual that belonged to " a shadow of good things 
to come." " The very image " of these good things was 
now to be seen in the sanctuary of prayer and instruction 
where our Lord and his disciples were brought up to 
worship, and where they began to preach and teach 
without ever a word of fault found with the method 
of service and organization. And when they were cast 
out from the meetings there by majorities of unbelieving 
elders and people, they organized precisely similar meet- 
ings and modes familiar to the people, calling them 
churches. The testimony of Jesus remained with these 
when his own work was done. The great commission 
was consigned to these, and elders came to the front 
for its tradition. 

There never was a time when the students of revealed 



12 INTRODUCTION, 

religion might consistently overlook a ^^ pattern shown in 
the mount'' or neglect to search with carefulness and 
zeal for the true model to which our Lord would have 
the visible constitution of his Church conformed. At 
the reformation from popery, next to the doctrine of 
justification by faith, the cardinal questions of that 
revival turned on principles which underlie the study 
before us. Even the rule of faith could not be ascer- 
tained and vindicated against the corruptions of Rome 
without asking, '' What is the Church — her headship, 
her membership, her charter, her authority and her 
mode of transmission ?'' In short, all the materials to 
be gathered and shaped in the structure of church gov- 
ernment lay at the basis of that happy reconstruction of 
the Christian Church in which we have an evangelical 
system restored and established. 

But the great Reformers, like mighty men who guard 
the trophies of a battle carelessly after all the waste of 
blood and treasure in obtaining them, were too indifferent 
among themselves about the best forms of polity inde- 
pendent of the State and most becoming and conducive 
to the work of a ransomed Church. For the right of 
private judgment and the word of God in the hands of 
the people and the priesthood of all believers and the 
symbolical sense of sacraments they were valiant and 
uncompromising, but for complete emancipation from 
the traditionary union of Church and State in govern- 
ment, from the canonical bondage to superstitious liturgies 
and mifred prelates, there was little or no enthusiasm and 
much questionable consistency. Luther allowed a domi- 
nating hierarchy in Denmark ; Calvin allowed the same 
in England ; and the contagion of their indifference over- 
spread the firet Reformation and descended to the gen- 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

erations followiDg as a genesis of deistical doubt respect- 
ing all the positive institutes of revealed religion. 

For natural religion of itself can have no consecrated 
forms. Clear and universal, and even authoritative, as 
its dictates may be interpreted by man, there is no frame- 
work for the conscience in which they can be set without 
legislation above us. Conventional universality itself 
were bootless without the Deity on high giving it 
sanction, with positive ordinations in forms of embodi- 
ment which contain revelation by word as well as by 
work. Positive religion only can live, while positive 
philosophy must die. "When Robespierre in his political 
sagacity saw that atheism would prevent for ever the re- 
construction and consolidation of the social system in 
France, he induced the Convention, which had abolished 
the forms of revealed religion, to ordain certain institutes 
of natural religion — the existence of a God and the im- 
mortality of the soul as dogmas, and orations to be de- 
livered and hymns to be sung in honor of the Deity at 
stated times or decades, ten days instead of seven for the 
week — as the ceremonial of this infidel renascence. Fif- 
teen or twenty churches of Paris were opened, funds 
were appropriated from the national treasury, and much 
enthusiasm was kindled among " theophilanthropists,'' 
as they were called. But it scarcely endured one year ; 
it had no warmth nor force, and its few admirers quit 
with fatigue and disgust ; and in less than two months 
after the " festival of the Supreme Being " its high 
priest suffered death at the guillotine. Churchly forms 
are therefore a standing peculiarity of revealed religion, 
positive, sacred and simple, as becomes the majesty of 
God himself, demanding our attentive study and strenu- 
ous conservation as they are given to us in his word. 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

The opposite extreme, however, is regained in our 
day by natural reaction and the sensuous proclivities of 
our own religious nature in its taste and sentiment. 
Forms have triumphed over creeds, have petrified en- 
thusiasm, substituted Nicene for apostolic Christianity, 
and would now summon all diversities of faith and 
practice to a rubrical union with the title '^Protestant" 
omitted. 

In England the day of Roman Catholic emancipation 
was the birthday of Puseyism. That achievement of 
liberal policy Avas less the result of justice to the op- 
pressed than lax indifference to existing forms of security 
provided for the established religion of the kingdom. 
Political ambition had done it, and the Church was 
alarmed. A mighty conservative zeal -was awakened 
which spread through all Protestant ranks, from the 
humblest vicarage of the realm to the throne of William 
IV. But, unhappily, this great indignation fell under 
the guidance of a State religion stalled and mitred in- 
stead of a general assembly of churches represented 
fairly. Oxford Tractarianism was enlisted, and, as in 
mediaeval time, the hope of true Christianity turned to 
the universities for counsel and help — in vain, and worse 
than in vain. 

The learned Oxonians issued their tracts, antagonizmg 
Rome on her own chosen ground of historical develop- 
ment and post-apostolical formation. They sought eagerly 
to find out a Catholicity more catholic and antiquity 
more ancient, and discovered their Augustan age in the 
days of Constantine and the ecumenical councils which 
followed rather than the days of Christ and the testi- 
mony of his apostles. Thus prelacy waked only to 
slumber again, and that more deeply. The upper level 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

on which it entered to throw up defences against the 
aggressions of degenerate Romanism was but the patri- 
mony of papists, the quarry of their foundations, and 
not a stone could be had for breastwork against them 
which had not been secured for their own use and 
shaped for the tradition of ritual and pomp, cathedral 
pride and spiritual despotism. Puseyism soon quashed 
the indictment which her own logic had written, and 
now writes out a legacy to Rome against even the 
British Reformation. This comes of extravagant for- 
malism, which makes the outward organization too much 
for the inward life and historical tradition more essential 
than godliness and truth. 

If, then, we had no other lesson on the subject than 
these ruinous variations of sentiment — verging one while 
to the line of infidel indifference, and another while stif- 
fening and turning back to the rubbish and mummeries 
of papal superstition — we are sufficiently admonished 
now to make the polity of the Church a diligent study 
more important than ever. No minister of Christ who 
is set for the defence of the gospel can avoid, without 
unfaithfulness, the duty of contending for the casket as 
well as the jewels it contains, the body as well as the 
soul in spiritual cure, the visible as index of the invisible 
organization, the complexity of matter and mind in that 
pathology of human life in which creation and redemp- 
tion together consult for the supreme well-being of man- 
kind. 

Truth, in this department as in others, will be found 
a just mean betwixt opposite extremes. One of these is 
that there must be a certain organization of the Church 
so legitimate and essential that there is no valid ministry 
and no covenanted salvation without it. The other is 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

that DO form of polity is given us in Holy Scripture, 
and we are authorized to shape it altogether by the cir- 
cumstances in which we are placed and the opportunities 
of our own expediency. The former is popish and pre- 
latical doctrine ; the latter is, for the most part, the tenet 
of non-historical and reactionary bodies that have emerged 
from hierarchical oppression in diiferent ways and on 
different occasions with protest which carried them too 
far, without discrimination between a divine sanction 
and the perversion of it which they repudiate. 

As we take our stand on middle ground, we see the 
right order of study inverted — unwisely, though not 
unwittingly — by the priesthood we oppose. They con- 
tend that a knowledge of the Church is first and lies at 
the foundation of all religious knowledge. Comprehend- 
ing this traditional thing in the form they offer it to faith, 
we have, it is said, the infallible clue to all other subjects 
within the range of theological pursuit. A similar mis- 
take, however, is chargeable to the opposite extreme, of 
postponing all acknowledgment of the Church until the 
truth is found out for ourselves and a regenerate mem- 
bership is gathered to compose the body. For the true 
Church is a ^^ pillar and ground of the truth '' to be seen 
and read of men as soon as they see the inscription upon 
it — an authorized constructure whose genuineness is 
tested by the word it publishes. We are born within 
its pale and baptized on that account, and added to its 
full communion on credible profession of a saving 
change. And thus even a primary education in the 
knowledge of truth is a study of the Church all along, 
and, whatever else she may be in polity and profession, 
her true accessions are never to be called " an army of 
raw recruits," as Wesleyans were once reproached by 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

English churchmen. Simultaneous with revelation it- 
self has always been the figure of a Church — "her 
seed/' as in iho, first promise, " holy city," as in the 
last description. 

Returning for a little here to the other extreme, we 
lose antiquity and origin itself in the pretension of a 
Church to be known before the truth and where in- 
fallibility of learning reposes. The lesson and the school 
begin together. Before Abraham was Christ was, and 
where Christ was the Church his body was, in word and 
type and prophecy inscribed upon her pillar. Even then 
she was known by the inscription upon her, with divine 
purpose and never at all by the commandments of men 
except as a fallen pillar. The Church was part of the 
truth and the truth was declared by the Church from the 
beginning, and these two — so distinct, but inseparable — 
are like the Urim and Thummim, " those oraculous gems 
on the breastplate of Aaron " which are still so conjec- 
tural in signification, though not obscurely rendered by 
the Vulgate translation : dodrina et Veritas. Or, if we 
say with others that " light and perfection '^ is the sense 
of the mysterious emblems, we have the same thought 
of sinmltaneous and intertwined duality contemplated in 
all Bible reading. "Arise, shine ; for thy light is come, 
and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee ;" " Out of 
Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.'' Where 
truth does not shine from the oracles of God explained, 
a Church is extinguished ; where a Church, so called, 
hides her light under a bushel, barters the truth away 
for place or popularity or power in secular conformity, 
she totters to a fall. 

The Fathers in the first four centuries had a glimpse of 
this fact that neither before the truth nor after the truth, 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

but with the truth as part of its own revelation, to be 
seen only in its own light and estimated only at its own 
value, is the Church of God. Jerome, in his commentary 
on the one hundred and thirty-third psalm, says: "The 
Church does not consist of walls or visible things, but of 
the truth of dogmas ; there the Church is wherever true 
faith exists/' Augustine, in his treatise on the unity of the 
Church (lib. 10, cap. 3), says : " Let us not listen to what I 
say or to what you say, but to what the Lord saith ; for 
surely there are divine books, and in regaixl to their au- 
thority we must agree to every one, believe in every one, 
obey every one. There must we seek the Church, there 
must we order and try our cause." This patristic postu- 
late we accept, and propose to seek the Church only in the 
Holy Scriptures, and therefore abreast with every other 
study in sacred learning. Correlated, combined and per- 
vading every other department — not excepting interpreta- 
tion, of course — must be this element of ecclesia as alike 
containing and contained without being either superlative 
or disparaged in tlie curriculum of a theological seminary. 
The polemists of hierarchy allege that theirs is a 
shorter way. Taking the Church in our arms at first 
with implicit faith in that unerring tuition she promises, 
we are led in all convenient seasons at once to the truth 
we need to know, whereas in the search we make for 
truth by the exercise of private judgment we are thrown 
into perpetual doubt or a maze of conflicting opinions 
which cannot be settled in such liberty and only vex the 
truth by close investigation. This plea, which has im- 
posed upon the simple and the prejudiced so long, is a 
bundle of arrogant assumptions begging every question 
it proposes and hushing every question we ask. It 
assumes what no exercised conscience will ever concede 



IXTRODUCTION. 19 

— that God has coininittod infallible tuition to fallible 
men, superscdino; the use of his own word and the 
agency of his Spirit in spiritual knowledge. Kevelation 
says nothing of any great teacher but Ciirist himself, 
who is " the way, the truth and the life," and of the 
Church existing before he came in the flesh it says, 
" Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that 
he might sanctify and cleanse it, with the washing of 
water by the word." Through all the ages, old and 
new, the atonement of Jesus alone suffices to cover in- 
firmities of the Church as well as of individual members, 
and the baptismal aff'usion for this purpose can be effect- 
ual ^' by the word " without the priest. Keason finds no 
analogy to justity, or even color, the precedence of an 
institute for teaching what men know nothing about 
independently of its existence. Tradition itself confutes 
the claim and uniformly exhibits the Church apart from 
the word of God, in the hands of the people, as a cloud 
of darkness, taking away the key of knowledge, and so 
hindering men from entering the kingdom of heaven. 

Besides, this antecedent position of the Church in 
Christian erudition gives no thread of escape from con- 
flict of opinions in a lal)yrinth of speculation walled and 
subterraneous. What she is and where she is and how 
she came to such ascendency are questions never settled 
in the contentions of history. Two large divisions of 
nominal Christendom, Greek and Roman, are separated 
from each other still in disputing the claim of sui)remacy 
in Catholicism, and within the fold of the latter — near 
to us for observation, and cidled Western, or Latin — we 
can find in her own annals and see in our own streets a 
diversity of sect or sodality, male and female, greater 
than all tlic divisions of Prf)t('stant C'liristianity. Wo 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

read of Augustinians, Benedictines, Carthusians, Cister- 
cians, Clunincensians, Dominicans, Franciscans, Jansen- 
ists, Jesuits, and quarreling among themselves with more 
bitter animosity than ever did evangelical divisions of 
Lutheran and Reformed branches respectively ; and the 
more frivolous the distinctions, the more spiteful the 
fight, which all the fear of a pope could not repress. 
Bossuet's Variations has been surpassed by Edgar\s 
Variations of Popery. The conclave, the council, the 
university, and the emperor have never yet agreed 
quiescently on the current legitimacy at Rome, and 
yet these are all factors in supporting that school. 

Succession, however, in this claim of prior teaching, 
between the learner and the lesson, to dictate before 
assimilating truth is yet more distracted in searching its 
line and digging for buried links which history has lost 
and tradition asserted. The fossils found are all, of 
course, without those articulations of life which first and 
quickly decay. The mode, the man, the time, the place, 
the means and the intention which belonged to every 
coronation of a pontiif, investiture of a bishop and ordi- 
nation of a priest must be recovered and assured before 
the soul is safe on tliis vain assumption of teaching, 
which is accompanied with no revealed truth in the 
hands of a learner to test its soundness and give it 
authority in learning. Here, of course, a deep and 
shoreless sea of conjecture will drift opinion without 
helm or compass and without end. Surely apostolical 
virtue never embarked on such succession or adventured 
on such waves. 

We are to study the Church, therefore, as a part of 
revealed truth, and not merely as the depository, the in- 
terpreter, the expedient and the missionary of truth. It 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

is all these, indeed, because the word of God has ap- 
pointed it in such relations ; but the same appointment 
has embodied all these uses and the leading features of 
its organization and its proportionate value as a doctrine 
in the same symmetry of ordination that has made rev- 
elation complete and all-sufficient in its provisions for 
the salvation of men. There is no unchurching in this 
completeness of any variety preferred to ours by any 
branch of true evangelism, for just as the doctrines are 
held with charity the Church is, in our system. Infalli- 
bility is left out and utterly disclaimed. Strong denomi- 
national convictions, when well enlightened, are strong 
enough to stand rejoicing in the truth when bearing all 
things, believing all things, hoping all things and endur- 
ing all things in the great co-operation to which we are 
called. Even visible and organic unity is near when our 
camp is entrenched within the lines of inspired revela- 
tion. Outside of these, on the open campaign of contingent 
influences and human contrivance, we cannot even hope 
to be organically one, however vast the importance of 
attempting it may be ; and to submit for a basis of ex- 
ternal union a tradition which is not divine, a relic of 
unreformed, or half-reformed, Christianity, calling it 
apostolic because it is old, is to postpone the unity 
wished for with increased aversion wherever God's word 
is known as the supreme directory. 

We do not undervalue church history when thus find- 
ing church government in the Scriptures alone. Its 
eventfulness is a great help on our path in fulfilling 
prophecy and depicting for a lamentation the backsliding 
of primitive faith and order from the apostolic model to 
Jewish hiei-archy and pagan superstition. And its de- 
velopment of periods — first in the Athanasian soundness 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

of tlieology which vindicated the absolute divinity of 
Him who is our Head, and next the Augustinian breadth 
of church-membership in the salvation of parents and 
children alike by absolute grace, and next the ''purpose 
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the 
world began/' making justification by faith without the 
works of the law the article of a standing or falling 
Church in the soteriology of the Keformation. All the 
historical settlements contribute help and lend facility 
of peculiar advantage to the study of ecclesiology, and 
especially the department of governmental polity. This 
last is '' the present truth '' in which nearly all the un- 
solved problems of Christianity are to be found, and 
progressive theology must here turn back to the Bible 
for a better start again than records of history or con- 
sensus of creeds can ever give it in advance. 

Not only time, but place also, will aid our study in 
this department. The great analogies of civil polity in 
this republic have been reciprocal indeed and borrowed 
largely from the antecedent model made in the Jerusa- 
lem Chamber at Westminster, with the Barrier Act in 
Scotland appended. The general government of this 
nation and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church went into action at the same time without any 
union between them other than the same principles of 
representation on which they had been reared together, 
in freedom alike from monarchical and hierarchical op- 
pression. However diverse in their contemplated origin 
— the one coming from Christ alone, and the other from 
numerous constituencies of the people — they meet, with 
singular identity, in representative government, showing 
that representation, like our only Mediator, is both human 
and divine. 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

Tlie total separation between Church and State, wliich 
all our constitutions require ; the complexity of aspect 
and interaction, at once tribal and central, particular and 
general. State and nation, a constellation of sovereignties, 
each one distinct in sphere and all revolving round a 
connnon orb, the will of the governed representatively 
expressed, — these are with us ever to be studied as both 
sacred and secular in theft' importance. The balance of 
power, in its three branches of legislative, judicial and 
executive authority, is different on the sacred side, w^here 
the judicial in great measure absorbs the other two, which 
are a divine code unalterable by man and a spiritual en- 
forcement only moral in the execution. The resemblance 
and the variety — both so familiar and so venerated for 
the sake of our fathers, who won them as a heritage for 
us — invite us to the contemplation as patriotic ministers 
of the gospel. Social science, bodies politic, infidel con- 
federacies and spasms of anarchy demand our attention 
as ecclesiastical students, now and here, engaging an 
ardor of discrimination and opportunities of making it 
which are without a parallel among the ages and the 
nations. And surely Christian sociology — " the keys " 
for all systems, the standard for all comparisons — should 
be studied well in the grant, the authority, the relations 
and the scope of an organization which vital piety has 
always found a fitting habiliment of truth as it is in 
Jesus. 



CHURCH GOVERNMENT 



CHAPTER I. 

THERE IS A FORM GIVEN. 

" TT is absolutely Decessaiy that the governmeut of the 
J- Church be exercised under some certain and definite 
form/' says our own Constitution. An absolute necessity 
must have been provided for by Him who gave the 
Church existence and engaged to make her catholicity 
" perfect and entire, wanting nothing/' Unity in variety 
is the creation of grace as well as goodness in all the 
work of redemption. When we agree to differ, the 
platform of this agreement must be fixed — all the more 
as difference preponderates in the separation from one- 
ness. If nothing be fixed in fundamental tie, if no 
form in substance can be found as ballast on the ocean 
of time, there is no historical Church to be seen, and 
fragments only bestrew the waste around us. We steer 
between opposite extremes. We shun as a mountain of 
ice that huge infallibility which curses departure in any 
variation, and we avoid with equal concern those floating 
wrecks which come from what had been contrived with- 
out a model ascertained in God's word and approved by 
the experience of ages. 

The divine right we recognize in church government 
is a right of the people to govern themselves by an 

25 



26 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

authorized representation of God to man in preaching 
and of man to God in praying ; but on the side of the 
people imperfection will always make a diversified con- 
formity, and this diversity should not make division, 
and will not if we fairly appreciate the essential features 
of that norm which God has given us in revelation. 
The contingencies of circumstance, the stages of culture 
in its progress, the varieties of taste among sincere 
believers, tradition, habit, and even love of change, 
may justify peculiarities in minute details of worship 
and service of discipline, so that any kind of polity 
may be folded in true Catholicism which does not repress 
the energies of Christian life with mere manacles of or- 
ganism, nor unchurch the mystical body of Christ wher- 
ever it is not called by a particular name. 

That a standard which may thus comprehend many in 
one must have been given us by the Head of the Church 
himself, instead of being left to our own wisdom to frame, 
we argue a priori — 

1. Because it must be positive rather than conventional 
in its appointment. Such only can withstand the aggres- 
sion of any false method in fanaticism, superstition or 
spiritual despotism. The neutral or negative alone, 
however free and voluntary it may be, does yield at 
length to the pretensions of arrogance. A late writer 
on church polity opposed to any claim of ^'divine right'' 
in the sanction of his postulates affirmed that within the 
diocese of a Kew England prelate two hundred and 
seven of the two hundred and eighty ministei's of that 
region were conformed, and had been from Congrega- 
tional churches, calling for serious inquiry on this and 
similar facts. But from the standpoint of our view the 
explanation is obvious. The tradition of prelacy is too 



THERE IS A FORM GIVEN. 27 

strong for the freedom of independency. Tlie positive, 
though even false in form, will prevail against indiffer- 
ence by dint of assertion and persistence alone. The 
only premises on which arrogance will break must be 
divine formations. Life, duration, triumph, are here 
because they are given by inspiration of God along with 
gospel truth and a part of this truth — its aptitude, its 
machinery, its vehicle and its appreciative embodiment. 
2. We argue also from the character of God as a God 
of order. He hath set our Head '^ upon his kingdom to 
order it and establish it with judgment and with justice 
from henceforth even for ever,'^ and we may well pre- 
sume that some constitution of order is meant in the 
administration of such a trust, given to his people and 
not left to their uninspired autonomy. Order in all 
nature is his "first law." Whether we look abroad 
upon the symmetry of creation at large, or at home 
on the smallest arrangement of his hand, we see regula- 
tion designed, both mediately and immediately, by him- 
self. And can we believe that he would build the most 
favored construction of his hands with accident and con- 
fusion allowed, as men left to themselves have always 
built toward heaven since they were confounded on the 
plains of Siiinar? If we believe that "the Word" in 
constructing earth and heaven by the simple fiat of his 
power would consult with such conspicuous care for the 
outward form and exact relation of all the parts, must 
we not conclude that the same supremely prudent Archi- 
tect has been careful in proportion to provide some def- 
inite outline for that visible government which required 
more than his wisdom and power, even the shedding of 
his blood, to found it, and for which this wide creation 
is but a transitory platform ? 



28 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

3. The same is presumed from the character of Christ 
as Mediator. '' Head over all tilings to the Church," 
says the apostle Paul, in strains of adoration. This ad- 
ministration of that providence which governs the world 
means a model ordained in the Constitution of the Church 
for all other forms of government to resemble, promote 
and cherish with the resources of all. It is a beacon to 
be seen, a banner to be displayed, a light to be followed. 
This objective pattern, which must be all these through 
all ages, could never be symbolized by man without the 
form of it being shown upon ''the mount" of revela- 
tion. Otherwise, the Pauline aphorism would be re- 
versed ; " He is Head over the Church to all things 
else " in subordinate and subservient influence — to make 
divine right for kings and infallible papacy for prelates. 
The normal dignity of our " Lawgiver " is effaced. 
Instead of Christ we shall have a Constantine to model 
the Church after the fashion of his empire and make 
her the tool of tyrants and the guild of politicians 
through every age. 

The supremacy of mediatorial enthronement forecasts 
the future of all administrations, and no visible necessi- 
ties of heredity, environment or succession exist to 
modify her features which were not foreseen and pro- 
vided for by Him who changes not and who gives to 
her a perpetuity lasting as his own. There must be, 
therefore, some organic law — or, at least, organizing 
principles — found in his word to antagonize and " over- 
turn " the fabrications of men which obstruct the prog- 
ress of his kingdom. We cannot resign the prior and 
mighty influence of a divine polity on the liberty of 
men, nor admit, without a treasonable insubordination 
to the Head, that his Church may become as readily the 



THERE IS A FORM GIVEN. 29 

handmaid of corrupt and despotic rule as of well-regu- 
lated freedom. 

4. The reciprocal influence of forms on principles and 
principles on forms which we know in the history of 
human affairs is another point presumed in our argument 
here as we contemplate the kingly office of Jesus. He 
who is ^' the truth " must be the author of all that is 
true in form as well as in doctrinCj for these have always 
been observed as inseparable. The sacraments were cor- 
rupted and justification by faith was lost in the develop- 
ment of hierarchy. Never did usurping despotism more 
speedily spoil the spirit of a governed people, and eradi- 
cate the sentiments of true liberty and justice, than did 
this overshadowing despotism of the priest subdue and 
exile from the Church right views of truth and holiness. 
Everything in her system that elevates the man hides 
the Saviour. The very name of priest in the sacerdotal 
sense — never given to ministers of the gospel in the New 
Testament, and only imported from the ruins of Judaism 
in the second century — introduced the notion of altar and 
sacrifice continued, and this corrupted the doctrine of 
sacraments, turning ''remembrance'^ to immolation and 
seal to sacrifice in the absurdities of a missal. It were 
easy to show at length in the light of history how pre- 
latical forms produced anti-Christian doctrines and led a 
declining Church to admixtures of Jewish and pagan 
ritual for the " un tempered mortar '^ with which the 
sacerdotal fabric was built. 

Equally detrimental to the soundness of saving truth, 
and even the liberty with which Christ has made us free, 
is the opposite and comparatively unhistorical extreme 
of anarchy in church government, claiming that no 
polity is given in the Bible, and that expediency is all 



30 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

we have by divine right for any constructure of eccle- 
siastical form. Observ^ation assures us that false doc- 
trines grow up like a thicket in all such ungovemed 
localities, and that churchly communism will choke 
even its own freedom with vapors of the worst intoler- 
ance. The reasonable mean betwixt both extremes must 
be that our divine Headship has fixed, without vibration 
toward either extreme, a groundwork, at least, on which 
we are to build a consistent superstructure, and finish it 
only with becoming details which may be properly dif- 
ferent in different places. 

5. Explicit appointment of God in the Old-Testament 
Church adumbrates fairly divine authority for the forma- 
tions ascertained in the New. The New-Testament 
Church is like the Old in beius^ a visible kinodom as 
well as invisible. Determinate shape in the one pre- 
sumes the same in the other. Tlie enlarged dimensions 
and more spiritual nature of the New will dispense with 
minute regulations and alleviate the fault of variations 
from the form prescribed, but tliey enhance the necessity 
of some constitutional norms given by the divine Founder 
of both dispensations. We can readily perceive how 
governments merely human will dispense with minute 
legislation when the nation becomes more enlightened 
and virtuous, and must do so as the national territory is 
extended ; but we see just as readily that corresponding 
to the generalization of law and constitution for many 
provinces and diverse inhabitants will be the need of 
fixedness and sacredness in the polity which remains to 
comprehend all. 

Look at the difference between the constitution of a 
particular State and that of the general government 
under which we live. The latter is much more simple 



THERE IS A FORM GIVEN. 31 

and comprehensive — not merely because the objects to 
be attained are not all the ends of government in our 
complex system, but because of the wide variety of 
people and interests included under its authority. Yet 
in proportion to the comprehension and fewness of its 
articles must be their precise interpretation, in view of 
the superlative import. Legislation by the State often 
buries a constitution from our sight, and we sometimes 
yield to a State Legislature the scope of a British Par- 
liament to make law and constitution both in our acqui- 
escence. But not so with the Constitution of the United 
States : the wider its purview, the more transcendent its 
importance. The conflict of parties, the jealousy of sec- 
tions, the floods of immigration, the diversity of races, 
the spread of territory, — all enhance the sacreduess and 
establish with the utmost precision this great organic 
law. 

Here we have analogy enough to presume a divine 
constitution for the visible Church of New-Testament 
times. If when the limits of the Church were a soli- 
tary nation the form of her government was ordained 
with awful sanction by her Head, now, when she is ex- 
pansive as the globe, embracing in her mission every 
kindred, nation, tongue and people, mast we not have a 
similar economy provided by the same adorable Suprem- 
acy ? A formulary of organism it is which threads 
together all dispensations with its first principles of 
government, suiting all times and progress and ex- 
pansion, confronting antagonisms with charity — which 
"beareth all things" — without compromise of right, 
and embracing kindred varieties of form with a patience 
that ever waits for the ultimate assimilation. It is en- 
tirely gratuitous, therefore, to conclude, with Neander 



32 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

and others, that because the New-Testament Cluirch is 
enlarged and spiritual in her nature she may be loose 
and fluctuating and various in her outward structure. 
They seem to forget that she is visible as well as spirit- 
ual in her enlargement, and must therefore abide by the 
laws of visibility wherever it is found in the dominion 
of God and his Son — form and figure impressed authori- 
tatively by the Hand that gave it existence. 

These implications of a-pnori argument lead us now 
to intimations of Scripture that a form of government 
for the Church has been revealed as well as presumed 
from the primary teaching of true religion. The reve- 
lation of Messianic prophecy in the Old Testament w^ill 
naturally be accepted as the best of evidence on the sub- 
ject. *' The law and the prophets " are familiarly diverse 
in drift, though one and the same in their final cause. 
Therefore w^e have the force of concession as well as 
emphasis when we find the two gospel-prophets of old 
phrasing the personal glory of Christ and the structure 
of his ecclesia to come in terms which are almost techni- 
cally political and architectural. Thus Isaiah (ix. 6, 7, 
already cited): "The government shall be upon his 
shoulder,'^ etc. ; also (chap, xxxiii. 20-22), " Look upon 
Ziou, the city of our solemnities; thine eyes shall see 
Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not 
be taken down ; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever 
be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be 
broken. But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a 
place of broad rivei-s and streams ; wherein shall go no 
galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. 
For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the 
Lord is our king ; he will save us.'^ 

This remarkable density of tropes, municipal, nomadic, 



THERE IS A FORM GIVEN. 33 

nautical, military and governmental, must be a predic- 
tion of sometliiniT visibly formed in the future of a 
visible Church : *' Look upon Zion ;" " thine eyes shall 
see," etc. — not the eyes of the seer himself only, but of 
the people addressed in every age. Of course the spiritual 
protection, safety and permanence of the Church invisible 
must be implied, but this cannot be all these various fig- 
ures intend, nor even the first in fulfilment. The rule 
of interpretation is that a good temporal sense must be 
found, if possible, before we annex the spiritual sense, 
if there be any. Interpreting is not spiritualizing alone, 
nor chiefly. The latter may be imagination without 
limit; the former is the exercise of common sense by 
the tongue of the learned. We may well conjecture that 
common sense will not surrender the text of this mag- 
nificent prophecy to the mystical dreams of a coming 
Church without body to "look upon" or "eyes" in 
herself to see the incorporation here delineated, and the 
marvel of " a tabernacle that shall not be taken down," 
which never could be seen, before the advent of Christ 
in the flesh, and the foundation laid })y " apostles," as 
well as " prophets," with him as Headstone of the corner. 
In the sense of invisible catholicity the Church never 
was, and never can be, as a tent to be taken down and 
removed with its cords and stakes, in the nomadic figure : 
it is unchangeably fixed as the purpose of God himself 
She is graven on the palms of his hands, and her walls 
are continually before him. "The foundation of God 
standeth sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them 
that are his." It must, therefore, be a visible corporeity 
of the Church in well-adjusted organism that is foretold 
here as the ultimate establishment on earth (Ezek. xliii. 
11, 12): "Show them the form of the house and the 

3 



34 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

fashion thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the 
ordinances thei*eof, and all the forms thereof, and write 
it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form 
thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them/' 
The redundancy of form, fashion, ordinance, in the 
singular mention of this prophecy must emphasize the 
importance of some future polity for the Church con- 
formed to a pattern or principles of organization given 
by divine inspiration. 

A consensus of commentary from opposite sides of us 
may well supersede further annotation here. Bishop 
Patrick says : " These words may import that the model 
of God's temple here set forth is but a pattern of heav- 
enly things, as Moses' was, and a type of that pure 
Church built upon the foundation of the apostles and 
prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone ; 
which we may hope God will in due time restore. And 
in the mean season it is the duty of all good Christians, 
according to their abilities, to inform themselves and 
others what is the pattern, form and fashion of this true 
Church of God, in order to reform all those deviations 
which have been made from it.'' On the other hand, 
Dr. Gill says : ^' Here is the prophet personating the 
apostles of Christ, who delivered out the form of a 
gospel Church-State to the believing ones far superior 
to that they had been in, and into which they entered — 
or, rather, personating the ministers of the word in the 
latter day, showing to the Christians of these times the 
order, worship and discipline of a pure gospel- Church, 
who have been greatly deficient in their observance of 
them, and which is the work and business of gospel- 
ministers to do as well as to preach the doctrine of the 
gospel." 



THERE IS A EORM GIVEN. 35 

Scholiasts like these — one a hierarch in the Church of 
England, of whom Burnet said, " He was an honor to 
the Church and the age in which he lived,'' and the 
other a Baptist Independent who has never been ex- 
celled for learning and piety in his denomination — 
should lead us to search the Scriptures with at least 
hypothesis ahead for the leading features of a form 
divinely given. The search of Scripture which our 
Lord enjoined will, of course, include the inspired 
record of his own words during his ministry on earth. 
His errand here in the flesh being to fulfil the prophecies 
which went before upon him as the substance of all that 
had foreshadowed him, the only priest that ever lived to 
mediate and atone, an advent rather to supersede and 
abolish institutional forms which were " handwriting of 
ordinances " that were against the liberties and best wel- 
fare of men, — it was not '^ expedient " for him to con- 
struct a new visible Church not yet gathered, and to be 
gathered and organized by the Spirit of God, as of old 
actuating and guiding his disciples to continue a house 
of prayer and instruction ^' for all people." 

And yet "never man spake like this man" the first 
principles of ecclesiastical formation. The union of 
Church and State was virtually disestablished for ever 
by the memorable declaration, ^' My kingdom is not of 
this world." Even the formative force of this negation 
is wonderful when fairly applied in its corollary to nearly 
all the historical churches of Christendom. Separate the 
accretions of State polity from time to time, the ambi- 
tions of rank, the intok^rance of tyrants, the turbulence of 
revolution, the greed, the craft, the pride and the servility 
entailed by such corruption, and how different would be 
the body and form of ecclesiasticism to the eyes of men 



36 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

and angels ! Church history would be to all genera- 
tions the chronicle of grace and beauty, instead of 
being annals of debasement and revolting inconsist- 
ency. 

Another negation of those gracious lips should level 
inequality of rank within the commonwealth he came 
to seek and save, giving to the social system a brother- 
hood of man, both parity of ministers and parity of 
people, entailing a polity which would make a priest- 
hood of the race and a virtual protest for ever against 
ambitious pride of rank in the governments of men. 
Matt. XX. 25-28 : ^^ Ye know, that the princes of the 
Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are 
great exercise authority upon them : but it shall not be 
so among you ; but whosoever will be great among you, 
let him be your minister, and whosoever will be chief 
among you, let him be your servant." (See also Mark 
X. 42-48.) These first principles, emphatically uttered 
by our Lord, were his nuncupative will to faithful 
hearers about the formal disposition of his inheritance, 
which he was about to redeem with his precious blood. 
And we shall see what a germ they were in a sequel of 
development by his apostles, who found nothing to be 
added but what was to be derived legitimately from 
premises and warrants contained in divine words before 
they were commissioned. 

After the apostles entered upon their great work of 
witnessing for the ascended Saviour and writing out the 
doctrines of his grace for all generations to come, the 
features of church form are all indicated as divinely 
given by our Lord himself. Even the minute divei-sities 
of manifestation peculiar to that initial period are men- 
tioned as given of God by the use of a Greek word 



THERE IS A FORM GIVEN. 37 

(idsTo) which undoubtedly means appointment and con- 
stitution by the sovereign authority : " He hath set in 
the Church," etc. (See 1 Cor. xii. 28.) "Governments" 
are distinctly mentioned, as "set" in the Church by 
divine appointment. And that no rigid exactness in 
government, without regard to the circumstances and 
eifects in administration, can be intended, the apostolic 
ministry were authorized to govern themselves by a 
sound expediency in view of the benefit to be obtained 
and injury to be avoided. Yet no expedient of man's 
devising and wisdom of inspired — and still less un- 
inspired — observation or experience should dare to alter 
the main features of that system which God " hath set '^ 
in the Church — a plural number of elders in each par- 
ticular church. Inspiration makes that plural "gov- 
ernments." Popery and prelacy would say " govern- 
ment." Monopoly, from the diocesan to the pontiff, is 
the setting of man if not in revolt or apostasy, yet 
surely in departure from divine constitution and words 
of legislation by Christ and his apostles. 

It was fairly settled in that long controversy concern- 
ing "things indifferent" which greatly agitated churches 
of the Reformation, that nothing can be so regarded which 
has either precept or example bearing on it in Scripture. 
The jus divinum, or divine right, obtained from such a 
source will be obligatory according to the comparative 
importance of what is sanctioned and the certainty with 
which the warrant is interpreted. Forms and modes are 
secondary to doctrines in importance, and uncertain gloss 
upon the text is inferior in its claim on the conscience ; 
so that no strength of Bible proof will permit our im- 
perfect knowledge to unchurch other varieties of or- 
ganism and usage, or claim for our own more than the 



38 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

advantage of better edification for the soul and greater 
animation of Christian life. Such advantage, however, 
is immense. When ^' we see through a glass darkly" 
and know that ^^the time is short '^ and the call impera- 
tive, divine formations made ready for us in the word 
are like the sling of David in proof, and prudence will 
find them always to be the quickest and safest in armor 
and outfit. 

The want of explicitness, express and exact delinea- 
tion, in what we quote from the word of God can be no 
presumption against the pertinence of its authority in the 
case, but rather the contrary. For this accords with that 
relative inferiority of form which belongs to the nature 
of our faith. If the warrant for a Presbyterian polity 
had been given with the precision and stateliness of a 
formal constitution, in the language of analysis, while 
the doctrines we profess were left as they are, in the lan- 
guage of synthesis, to be laboriously gathered into symbol 
by rigor of the understanding and charity of the heart 
combined, our whole system had been the reverse of what 
it is. Instead of being a religion of great principles, ever 
expanding with fresh powder, it would have been, like the 
traditions it has exploded, a fixed directory of particulars, 
without versatility or adaptation to the progress and 
change appointed alike to the Church and the world. 
The correspondence we trace between the plenary light 
of doctrine and the fainter light of form gives to the 
latter an authority which is all the more binding because 
it has reason and proportion in its place on the pages of 
revelation. Modesty of pretension will never prejudice 
a claim when the trial is fair. Because in the vagueness 
of its hints it disclaims to be of equal moment with the 
truths which save the soul, we are to admire it the more 



THERE IS A FORM GIVEN. 39 

and strive to establish it over the wliolc extent of its 
legitimate claims. 

But, after all, the insufficiency of Scripture to give us 
divine right for any particular form has been greatly 
overstated, and it becomes us here and now to review 
briefly the points made and proved at Westminister, and 
approved by the American Church, as a formative series 
which knits together in one, more and more, the different 
bodies entitled to share it as a good inheritance from their 
fathers. 

1. We have divine right for anything that is explicitly 
commanded in the Bible. The whole warrant of the gos- 
pel comes to us with such indorsement: '^This is his 
commandment, that we should believe on his Son Jesus 
Christ.^' When "the work of the law written in their 
hearts" was tabulated by revelation on Sinai, it became 
a formula of command requiring by divine right our 
obedience in heart and deed for ever. There is no 
release from perpetual obligation to the commands of 
Scripture unless the dispensation to which they belong 
was evidently transient in its nature, or the circum- 
stances in which they were given obviously abnormal 
or preparatory. Thus the whole burden of express 
direction which we read in the detail of Levitical rites 
and the judicial ordinances of ancient Israel, though 
with emphatic solemnity it be said of each, ''This shall 
be an ordinance for ever,'^ binds us no longer, unless by 
fair exegesis and New-Testament light we find particular 
injunctions which belong to the code of moral obligation. 
So also with rare and singular commands on extraordi- 
nary occasions, interspersed through all the times of 
preternatural dealing with the Church, Old Testament 
and New ; as when Abraham was ordered to sacrifice 



40 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

Isaac, and the Israelites were told to ask jewels of their 
oppressors, and the first preachers to provide nothing for 
their own sustenance, though sent to inhospitable homes, 
and the primitive elders to anoint the sick with oil in the 
name of the Lord. Whatever principles of obedience 
may be hinted by such exceptional injunctions, the special 
form of them is not binding upon us. 

Precepts in Scripture which do not pertain to an 
obsolete dispensation nor peculiarity of uncommon occa- 
sion largely shape the visible Church. Organized as a 
missionary society, her form is the creation of a com- 
mand from the lips of her Saviour : " Go, teach all na- 
tions." Built for the celebration of ordinances, institu- 
tional precepts counted the number and prescribed the 
formulas of these : ^^ The like figure whereunto even 
baptism f ^' Do this in remembrance of me.'' Gathered 
into visible assemblies like the folds of a shepherd, the 
visible faith, diligence, watchfulness and care of minis- 
ters all originate in commands of Scripture. Tended by a 
non-producing body of men whose work and labor of love 
are spiritual and not carnal, the worshiping assemblies are 
explicitly commanded to give this order a liberal main- 
tenance out of their carnal things, thus making a formal 
distinction between ministers and people. 1 Cor. ix. 
14 ; Gal. vi. 6. These visible folds may not be faith- 
fully cared for by the hireling shepherd or the flock 
may wander away from the pastures enclosed, and many 
another kind of mischief may befiill the one or the other, 
and the whole interest requires conservation by discipline 
This also is performed by divine command. Tit. iii. 10 
Eev. ii. Ministers are too few, and they die; successors 
are needed now and always ; and these are not born, as 
the Levites were, but are called afresh from every tribe 



Tin: RE IS A FORM GIVKN. 41 

and ill every generation. And this call, tli(> preparation, 
the probation, the iin-estilnre, — all are matters and 
methods of expi-ess injimetions in Scripture. 1 Tim. 
V. 22; 2 Tim. ii. 2, etc. In short, the ex})lieit com- 
mands of the i')il)le respecting alike the visible con- 
>trn('tiiri' and out ward arrangements would, if connected 
in one view, make nj) the outline of a system that is 
complete in visible form. 

2. Implicit or constructive commands are equally 
binding. In the })rece})t3 of the Decalogue negative in- 
junctions forbidding sins are fairly construed as com- 
manding the o])posite virtues and duties, and such as 
forbid the outward grossness of the act prohibit Avith 
equal force of authority the inward disposition or incen- 
tive to the act. Referable to the Church, visible and 
invisible, are many such constructive injunctions, and 
what seems to be an occasional and minute direction 
becomes a broad commandment. Thus the right to 
have our infant children baptized because they are born 
within the ])ale of the visible Church is fairly derived 
fnjm an unrepealed behest to ancient Abraham, as well 
as an express extension of the family promise in the 
words of Peter on the day of Pentecost. And many 
an explicit command bears to us a broad implication 
bv way of necessary means to the end it enjoins. When 
Timothy is commanded to '' lay hands suddenly on no 
man," there is fairly devolved a caution u]K>n all suc- 
ceeding evangelists engaged in ordination to formulate 
instruction, preparation, time and trial at the threshold 
of the Christian ministry. When the apostle recpiires 
expressly that men be iir.-t proved and loiind blameless 
for till- oiliee of deacon, there is implied, of course, the 
necessity of similar })rocedure before the older and high<^r 



42 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

office of elder is assumed. When our Saviour bids an 
aggrieved and complaining party to "tell it to the 
church/^ the implication is fair that he means a bench, 
and not a bishop, as the ultimate tribunal of redress. 

3. Divine acts as well as precepts have had conspicu- 
ously a formative force on the Church in all ages. Cere- 
monial institutes of burdensome ritual were abolished 
by the act of Christ coming in the flesh to fulfil all 
righteousness. Offices in the Church, in all varieties 
of form, needed for continuance and for the first time 
and for all time, were conferred by the act of Christ 
ascending to his Father and " receiving gifts for men." 
To this day an ascension-gift from him is the constitu- 
tional foundation of any proper office in the Christian 
Church. Acts of the people in making officers are null 
without special recognition of a qualifying gift bestowed 
by the act and influence of God himself, and the calendar 
of New -Testament offices reducible at his pleasure with 
the ceasing of need for this and that office mentioned in 
Scripture may be restored more or less according to the 
acts of Christ in the ceaseless vigilance and care with 
which his administration is conducted. 

4. Divine approbation is another source of warrant 
for visible feature in the Church of God. The church 
of Ephesus had such commendation for not enduring 
the wicked within her, detecting false ministers and 
hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans ; and it is fair to in- 
fer fi'om this that the Church is authorized with di- 
vine right to keep herself pure and to exercise a searching 
and rigid discipline upon her own members, rebuking the 
disorderly and expelling the reprobate. When the apostle 
commends for double reward " the elders that rule well," 
in distinction without preference from those " who labor 



THERE IS A FORM GIVEN. 43 

ill ^^•(ll•(l and doctrine" (1 Tim. v. 17), we infci- a divine 
right in making- rulinir elders a distinct order oC oIlicH'. 

5. 8t'rij)tnre examples. The imitable })attern of Christ 
and the condnct of" holy men as thev were; led and in- 
strucied by the Spirit of God must be eonsidei'(!d as 
formative alike of eompaet and conduct in the "doc- 
trine and fellowship" of apostolical churches. The 
apostle Peter, himself "an elder," in giving direction 
to the "oversight" by presbyters who succeeded him, 
bids them not to be "lords over God's heritage," but "en- 
samples to the flock." The apostle Paul, who could say, 
" So ordain I in all churches," would say with variety of 
emphasis, " Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of 
Christ ;" "Be followers together of me, and mark them 
which walk so as ye have us for an ensample;" " Those 
things, which ye have both learned, and reeeived, and 
heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall 
be with you." The peculiar abundance of such in- 
junctions, together with the fact that large portions of 
Scripture, Old Testament and New, are declaratively 
given to conformate the body of Christ, both visible and 
invisible, constrains the inference that no polity is good 
and true which does not copy its features mainly from 
the models of transactions revealed in the word of God. 

The binding precedent in revelation may be discrimi- 
nated easily. There is not an action revealed in the 
l>il)l(.' whose moral (piality is not w^ritten beside it; so 
that the exercised disciple may follow with instinctive 
a])preciati()n, that rai-cly infatuates him with the letter. 
Sinfulness and .-inuidai' (•(■(•cntiMcity ai-e always obvious 
in sacred aiiiinN to the ^jiiriinal mind as we study their 
biography. W'c do not inxokr punishment from heaven 
U])on our p(;rs(;cutors because lOlias called down lire upon 



44 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

his. We may not punish without process of law the 
most atrocious criminals in Church or State, because 
Phiuehas killed without trial the adulterous pair that 
were leading Israel to sin. We are not to design the ex- 
tinction of our own lives in the patriotism which plots the 
destruction of enemies because Samson did so. We are 
not to keep aloof from honorable wedlock because Paul 
remained unmarried, nor seclude ourselves from the 
amenities of social life because John the Baptist lived 
in the desert and wore a leathern girdle, nor invade the 
rights of property with communistic Utopia because they 
^^ had all things common ^' at the spiritual effusion of 
Pentecost. Common sense would be distempered in the 
man who would find in the rarity of such examples a 
binding model, even though interpretation confounds 
him. If the act in question is agreeable to the word 
of God as a whole, is practicable now, suitable to present 
circumstances and in harmony with present providence, 
the example binds us ; it is the will of God in our duty, 
divine right is our warrant and divine approbation is the 
reward of our following. 

Thus, we are bound to imitate the apostles in baptizing 
women as well as men, and whole households on the 
profession of parental faith as well as that of adult 
members in particular. We are bound to follow them 
in meeting for worship on the first rather than the 
seventh day of the week, in memory of " the resurrec- 
tion." We are bound to lay on the hands of the Pres- 
bytery without a prelate in ordaining candidates for 
office in the ministry. We are bound to connect in a 
common representation the churches of a populous com- 
munity, in town or country, to be called Church in the 
singular number, as they called the churches of Jerusa- 



THERE IS A FORM GIVEN. 45 

lem and Aiitioch respectively, and also to summon gen- 
eral assemblies for the care of such collective ecclesia, as 
they did a council at Jerusalem, to decide on a reference 
from Antioch to settle disputes, to manage interests of 
great moment, and constrain with pastoral circular all 
the churches to accept the decrees of charity and wisdom, 
in the submission of amity and peace. 

6. The light of nature itself is authorized in revela- 
tion to warrant many things for the framework and 
usages of the visible Church. Dim as this light may 
be, and inconclusive as its authority on the conscience 
must be when separated from the sources already men- 
tioned, it has a sanction for all the inferences derived by 
right reason from Scripture premises of precept and ex- 
ample, and for all the cougruities of manner and detail, 
that practical piety and enlightened sentiments of devo- 
tion would annex to the solid structure we find in the 
Bible. When we know that God is its author, and the 
glimmering of its ray might picture his ^' eternal power 
and Godhead " to the most benighted pagan, we must 
look for divinity in its beaming, and dignify the most 
minute proprieties of custom with a touch of the venera- 
tion which begins at the corner-stone of the edifice we 
build. It helps the Church alike to discipline the gross- 
ness of immorality at home, and the frivolities of fashion 
in the sanctuary. "A wise master-builder" was aided 
by this light in rebuking incest : " It is reported com- 
monly tliat there is fornication among you, and such 
fornication as is not so much as named among the Gen- 
tiles, that one should have his father's wife." Again, to 
the same Corinthian church he quotes the instincts of na- 
ture on the subject of head-dress in their prayer-meetings : 
" Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man 



46 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman 
have long hair, it is a glory to her.'^ In short, there is 
not one becoming function or mode or measure devised 
by spiritual men for edification at this temple, and be- 
lieved to be consistent in letter and spirit with that main 
architecture which the Bible has drafted, that may not 
" look through nature up to nature's God '^ for his fiat 
and blessing. 

^' Doth not even nature itself teach'' us that the servant 
is not greater than his lord, that the servants of the lowly 
Jesus, who came to minister and give his life a ransom for 
base and rebel men, should not be lords over the heritage 
of God, or be ministered to with distinguished titles and 
worshipful seats of high position in the house of their 
common Master? "Doth not even nature itself teach" 
us that prayer to God our Father should be the sponta- 
neous expression of individual souls and individual con- 
gregations, represented by individual ministers, with the 
help of the Spirit and according to the varied conditions 
of time and place, instead of being petrified by tradition 
or bound up by cathedral canouicity of one generation for 
another until it becomes proper only by some new trans- 
lation? "Doth not even nature itself teach" us that 
representatives should be chosen to act for the people in 
church communities as well as in other kind of society 
when it is impossible as well as inexpedient for them 
to act for themselves with intelligent decision ? and 
that in such representation the majority should govern 
and the minority acquiesce in the Lord ? and that when 
a partial or prejudiced judgment would trample on the 
rights of any church-member tliere should be constitu- 
tional provision for appeal to another tribunal of larger 
representation, other collective wisdom and exempt from 



THERE IS A FORM GIVEN. 47 

the local influence which had injured its cause where it 
originated? 

All these things unsophisticated reason teaches by the 
light of nature, with or without the parallel lines of or- 
dinance in Scripture, inasmuch as the Bible itself recog- 
nizes authority in such dictates for all that is auxiliary 
and supplemental to that consistency of outline which 
revelation authenticates. And all the sources of warrant 
now indicated for the system we teach are consentaneous 
and flow together, yet any one of them apart will sanc- 
tion a feature in its own category. One part may be 
commanded, another construed, another exemplified, 
another implied in a revealed act or approbation of 
God, and still another may be subjoined by the wisdom 
of men, exercising common sense, with devout accord 
and pious conformity. We seek to unite them all in 
our view of the body we prefer, and, however scouted 
it may have been for its claim to divine right in the 
past, however broadened it may be in the charity which 
forgets itself while co-operating with others at present, 
and however much it may come behind others in figure 
and visible numbers now, we may well be sure of the 
ultimate rise and establishment of this form as ^^an 
eternal excellency, the joy of many generations.'^ 



CHAPTER II. 

EGCLESIA. 

THIS word, which is now transferred to English by 
dictionaries of our language, is of Greek original, 
and is defined by Brande, " The great assembly of the 
Athenian peoples, at which every free citizen might 
attend and vote.'' It is familiarly translated in our 
tongue by the word *^ church/' This term also is of 
Greek derivation, and, as some say, from two words 
compounded, meaning "the house of the Lord." Others 
derive it from a Greek adjective — xvptaxo^, "pertaining 
to the Lord," a word twice used in the New Testament, 
the Lord's Supper and the Lord's Hay, The earliest 
missionaries from Constantinople gave it to the Goths 
on the lower Hanube, and these gave it indirectly to the 
Anglo-Saxons. " House of the Lord " — " church " in 
England, " kirk " in Scotland — was until the Reforma- 
tion the name given to the building itself in which God 
was visibly worshiped. Then, by metonymy — the thing 
containing for the thing contained — this word began to 
designate the assembly of worshipers within the sacred 
walls. Yet the early translations of the Bible by Tyn- 
dale and Cranmer seem to have avoided this figurative 
use of the word, and used the term " congregation," not 
"church," where it now uniformly occurs. This later 
translation to mean the assembly within so quickly and 

48 



ECCLESIA. 49 

generally prevailed in the parlance of evangelized people 
that many scrupled to use the word any more as a name 
for the edifice, calling the latter '^ meeting-house/^ But 
now the term " church " is familiarly used in both senses. 
Ecclesia, or church, in the sense of assembly, has a 
synonym in " synagogue," and was used for the most 
part by " the seventy " Greek translators to render a 
Hebrew word ( '''^P) which signifies a coming together by 
call, and, passing by the secular use of this word in Acts 
xix. 32, 39, 41, we may find in its application to Chris- 
tian assemblies five distinct senses which it is important 
for us to note with careful scrutiny and candid research. 

1 . A particular church or congregation meeting together 
in one place for the ivorship of God and the observance of 
his ordinances. Acts xiv. 23. This church may be identi- 
cal with a single family, or a few individuals of differ- 
ent families, in a private house. Col. iv. 15 ; Rom. xvi. 5. 
It may exist not only in a private conventicle, with but 
two or three met together, but also without formal or- 
ganization. When Paul and Barnabas " returned " in 
their mission to "confirm'^ the souls of disciples, they 
" ordained elders in every church," the particular churches 
having apparently waited a while for such organization 
in order to discern proper men for the eldership. 

2. A number of ptdrticular churches in the same city or 
vicinity or country united in one ecclesiastical body. When 
severally organized by the appointment of elders, they 
are collectively one in a Presbytery. We read of the 
church in the singular number at Antioch (Acts xiii. 1), 
at Jerusalem (Acts viii. 1), at Corinth (1 Cor. i. 2), while 
the sacred history constrains us to believe there must have 
been more disciples in each of these communities than 
could meet in one place for worship and instruction. 

4 



-^0 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

This collective sense, remarkably suggestive, is frequent 
and familiar. 

3. It means all the local churches and all visible com- 
munities of ecclesia which are extant on earth. This 
general sense, inferable as progress from the expansion 
of local to provincial distinction, is found in Acts xv. 3, 
where Paul and Barnabas — commissioners from Antioch 
to Jerusalem — are said to have been " brought on their 
way by the church '^ as they traveled through Phenice 
and Samaria declaring to the brethren the conversion of 
the Gentiles. The hospitable facilities of travel indi- 
cated here were common over all the Christendom then 
to be seen, for the apostle speaks of it in connection with 
his contemplated journey into Spain (Rom. xv. 24) and 
his proposal to winter at Corinth. 1 Cor. xvi. 6. This 
indefinite extension of visibility, expressed in the singu- 
lar number — ^' the church " — should be considered a dis- 
tinct sense from the definite compactness of one com- 
munity. In such general sense we see it used in 1 Tim. 
iii. 15, where, in allusion to the stone pillars on which 
imperial rescripts were published, the " church " is called 
" the pillar and ground of the truth.^^ 

4. The church invisible, consisting of time believers 
effectually called — the ichole society of faithful ones u'ho 
are united to Christ by the indivelling of his Spirit and a 
living faith. Acts xx. 28. Though visibility must be a 
predicate of the Church universal on earth, it is not es- 
sential in any one form, nor at all times in any form what- 
ever, so far as social organism is in shape. We can have 
a distinct idea of the Church composed of a scattered 
and persecuted few whose meetings are disbanded, whose 
ordinances are suppressed and who even fail to recognize 
one another, as was the condition of witnesses in the dark 



ECCLESIA. 51 

ages of a visible apostasy and bloody intolerance. We 
can extend our conception to the invisible universe — all 
space, and all time too — and include the first-born who 
are already written in heaven with the latest of sons and 
daughters yet to be called and justified. Nor does it 
embarrass the comprehension at all to dispense with 
formulas of every kind, doctrinal as well as ecclesiastical, 
universals as well as particulars ; for the bond is personal 
union to Christ, so as to be incorporated as members of 
his mystical body, ^' the fulness of Him that fiUeth all in 
all." 

This bond alone is viewless, and it is the whole of that 
ultimate invisibility into which some would simplify the 
entire conception of the Church. All else is visible. 
Visible persons compose it — not angels — visible fruits 
prove its existence, visible ordinances are its note and 
nourishment, visible bodies at the resurrection rise to 
the consummation of its glory. And the more con- 
spicuous, palpable and all-engrossing it becomes, the 
more it reaches to the destination of its Founder and 
realizes the ultimate scheme of his own word and 
promise. The reality of union to Christ by faith will 
suffice to bring into the Church members who may have 
no Church-state in the eyes of men, nor valid ordinances, 
nor conscious communion of saints, nor even recognition 
by those who are lawfully commissioned to gather and 
feed the flock of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, there 
may be the tenure of a Church-state and warranted frui- 
tion of its benefits to some extent without actual conver- 
sion of the soul. The parent may have his family bap- 
tized and truly saved in the same visible relation, without 
having himself regenerated by any of its immunities, 
and to say that he is not really in the Church at all 



52 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

because he is not savingly united to Christ by faith is 
as much a solecism as to say that a man is not a tenant 
of God's goodness in the ordinations of nature and 
providence because he has no loyalty of heart to God 
nor vital interest in him as the portion of his soul. 

The distinction of the Church into visible and in- 
visible is therefore not the same as into nominal and 
real, apparent and true, as many allege nowadays. The 
visible is actually and divinely instituted, as well as the 
invisible. The body of man was made, and made to be 
redeemed, by the Head of the Church, as well as his 
soul. The antiquity of its date (Acts vii. 38), the ety- 
mology of its name, its ISTew-Testament record of indefi- 
nite continuance, the necessity of its platform as a place 
of transaction for the visible and the invisible together, 
" a tabernacle of witness'' for 'Hhe Church in the wil- 
derness," — all admonish us against the radical simplifica- 
tion that would sink the seeming as if it were the same 
as the false, and fiud no refuge from the repellant visi- 
bility at Rome but in a mystic idea which would sub- 
limate the organism of redeemed sons and daughters 
beyond the conditions of humanity, and make spirits only 
the subject of ecclesiastical administration, though the 
apostle Avould have the "whole spirit and soul and 
body preserved blameless " by such instrumentality 
" unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

AVith this moderation on the subject, we argue for the 
distinct existence of a spiritual body in the fulness of 
Christ composed of regenerated believers only, as a 
main sense of the Christian Church. 

(1) The metaphors employed in Scripture to describe 
the Church mean this, beyond question, and metaphor 
goes deeper than definition always, though narrower on 



ECCLESIA. 53 

the surface. She is the body of Christ (Eph. i. 23 ; Col. 
i. 18) — not visibly alone, but inwardly and vitally also, as 
the sympathies of a living body are intimate between the 
members with each other, and all of these with the head. 
So the apostle illustrates (1 Cor. xii. 27) : " Now ye are 
the body of Christ and members in particular.'^ Of 
course it is not so with merely formal professors. Again, 
she is called the spouse of Christ (Eph. v. 23 ; Rev. xix. 
7), and surely false professors who would betray the 
Saviour with a kiss, and who may be found in the 
purest visibility of the Church on earth, cannot be 
included in such endearing and durable relation ; for 
in this figure she is "arrayed in fine linen clean and 
white, and the linen is the righteousness of saints. '^ 
Again, she is called a fold. John x. The sheep within 
it know the voice of the Shepherd and follow him, and 
he gives them eternal life, and they shall never perish, 
neither shall any pluck them out of his hand. We must 
not allow within such a fold those whom he says, even 
in a visible Church-state, " Ye believe not, because ye 
are not of my sheep." And, once more, she is called a 
building of God. Eph. ii. 21; 2 Thess. ii. 4. Her 
foundation is Christ, her materials are " lively stones,'^ 
her structure is so fitly framed together that every joint 
" supplieth strength,'^ and her stability such that " the 
gates of hell cannot prevail against her." Individuals, 
therefore, whose faith is dead, whose foundation is on 
the sand and who are not built up for an habitation of 
God through the Spirit are not integral parts of such a 
building. 

(2) The general description of her character purports 
the Church invisible as a frequent sense of the ecclesia. 
She is the object of an eternal decree of grace (1 Pet. i. 



54 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

2 ; Heb. xii. 23), and includes, therefore, only those who 
are viewed with complacency by the infinite Mind. Her 
members are known by the inward condition of the 
heart : " He is a Jew, which is one inwardly ; and circum- 
cision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the 
letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God/' Rom. ii. 
28, 29. Even her progress in the world as a kingdon: 
is emphatically contrasted with the splendid visibility of 
old — the exodus, the march, the triumph, the establish- 
ment in Canaan. " The kingdom of God cometh not 
with observation. Neither shall they say, Lo here! or 
lo there ! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within 
you.'' Luke xvii. 20. In accordance with this chief 
signification of the term in Scripture is the language of 
the Creed, that is held in superstitious veneration by 
those who reject the distinction of invisible : " I believe 
in the holy catholic Church ;" " Faith is the evidence of 
things not seen.'^ Viiih Bellarmine and others, the Creed 
means, therefore, " I see the holy catholic Church, and 
therefore believe in her." 

5. A tribunal in the Church for the settlement of dif- 
ferences among brethren, to which is to be their ultimate 
appeal. Matt, xviii. 17 : "And if he shall neglect to hear 
them, tell it unto the church ; but if he neglect to hear the 
church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a 
publican." This tribunal could not mean the people in 
common of a particular church, for no such conventicle 
was then existing. It could not be considered prolep- 
tical direction for a Church of the future, for he says, 
*' My Church," in the predictive sense ; and here it is 
evidently some judicatory then familiar and practicable: 
"the Church." It cannot mean divulging to a commu- 
nity of Christian people in any sense the matter which 



ECCLESTA. 55 

has failed of redress by private means; comparative 
privacy is continued to the last: "Let him be unto thee'^ 
(not the public) " as a heathen man," etc. No tribunal 
of gossip is the last resort of an aggrieved believer. 
And it has been a principle of Church discipline from 
the beginning, not to spread the knowledge of oifences. 
We are, then, shut up to the synagogue, where there was 
a representative bench of elders, and where our Lord and 
his apostles resorted for patterns of teaching and ruling 
and adjudication by an eldership. It was the collegium 
presbyter ovum, as Schleusner calls it, which is here called 
ecclesia. And with this great lexicographer agree a host 
of renowned interpreters, such as Calvin, Beza, Le Clerc, 
Campbell of Aberdeen and Edward Robinson of New 
York. Zo]^aycoyij and ^ExxXyjaia (" synagogue " and 
"church") are synonyms convertibly used in the Greek 
translation of the Old Testament and by the apostle 
James in the New. A judicial commission consisting 
of some two or three or more of the elders existed in 
this Church of the old economy, and these were the 
Church acting in a judicial capacity by representation. 
This would seem to be naturally the reference of our 
Lord in this place. Indeed, an exegetical necessity is 
averred in view of the next verse, and the whole context 
from the fifteenth verse to the end of the chapter. Dr. 
J. Addison Alexander in his Commentary on Matthew 
says, in the analysis of ch. xviii., that the subject of this 
portion is " the nature of Christian discipline or the 
divine law of censures and forgiveness." From all these 
considemtions we may infer at least that a church court 
or judicatory is a distinct sense of the term "church" 
in the Scriptures. 

These five different senses of "ecclesia" will never be 



56 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

gathered into one definition of the Church. The visible 
Church may, indeed, comprehend four of them with 
logical precision, but the invisible cannot be contained 
in the same formula, either expressly or impliedly. 
And yet this we have seen to be a principal meaning 
of the word in Scripture. How the mixed, limited and 
countable, transient and liable to corruption and deform- 
ity, could be made identical and commensurate with 
what " no man can number," eternal in the past, present 
and future as the purpose of God himself, and incorrupt- 
ible as the spirits of just men made perfect in heaven, or 
how the twain could be uttered in one breath and sen- 
tence of Catholicism, is inconceivable. Like the con- 
cursus in theology of divine sovereignty and man's 
free will, we give it up in explanation. Of course we 
hold both conditions to be of divine ordination and ex- 
plicable apart, but how they fit and blend and consist in 
relations exactly no one formulation could tell. Hence 
the wisdom of our Westminster Fathers, who were never 
excelled in the skill of definition nor exceeded in the 
compass of religious thought, has given us two defi- 
nitions of the Church (1st, invisible; 2d, visible), both 
catholic, both biblical — viz. : 

1. "The catholic or universal church, which is in- 
visible, consists of the whole number of the elect, that 
have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ 
the head thereof; and is the spouse, the body, the fulness 
of him that filleth all in all." 

2. " The visible church, which is also catholic or 
universal under the gospel (not confined to one nation 
as before under the law), consists of all those throughout 
the world, that profess the true religion, together with 
their children, and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus 



ECCLESIA. 57 

Christ, tlie house and family of God, out of which there 
is no ordinary possibility of salvation/^ — Confession of 
Faithj ch. XXV. 

It is important for us to notice how much alike and 
how much unlike are these two classical formulas. They 
are similar in being: " catholic and universal " since the 
advent of Christ, everywhere simultaneous, and yet dis- 
tinct, both of them universal, and yet definitively sep- 
arate — not two churches, and yet not one and the same, 
just as body and soul of a living man are not two 
persons, and yet not one nature. Both existed under 
the Old-Testament dispensation, but not alike universal 
and catholic save in the forecast of prophecy, adding the 
Gentiles to the visible Church. Both are gathered re- 
spectively by the call of God in his word and by the 
agency of his Spirit, but not alike in the vital efficiency 
of the latter. Both are divisible in reduction to units, 
yet neither of the units can be one and single, as an in- 
dividual detached. For in the Church invisible a true 
member is plural essentially in being united to all others 
of the mystical body as surely as he is united to the 
Head by faith, and in the visible Church the unit has ever 
been and ever will be the family — two, ^' together with 
their children.'' Here we must quit analysis and rele- 
gate to mystery the depths of our subject : " This is a 
great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the 
church." When husband and wife — being two, and yet 
" one flesh '' — can be expressed in one logical proposition 
without " and '' or '' if" in its terms, and compact in one 
predicate phrase the several qualities of each party, then 
only we may cease to double our definition of the Church 
and surrender as but shallow and superfluous the serjond 
definition which was voted at Westminster. 



58 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

Moreover, should the first definition become catholic 
and exclusive, it would subvert the fabrics of all exist- 
ing Catholicism, Greek, Roman and Protestant, and 
supersede in great measure the study of any visible 
formation, making Church polity a thing of fancy or 
convenience, not only of inferior importance, but of no 
importance at all except for external history and lines 
of tradition. Besides, we must go back with it to the 
Old-Testament time and interpret in its light the oixli- 
nances and prophecies pertaining to the Church of the 
past as well as the present and future. If the true and 
ultimate idea of " Church " be the invisible only, then 
were the types of old but shadows of a shadow, adum- 
brating a great corporeity which has all figures blended 
in its substance, and yet is itself without figure and 
without even substance ever to be seen with the bodily 
eye. All that the Bible makes in form, before a visible 
organization of the Church on earth, are promises and 
incidents of worship, interspersed along the track of 
primeval history, without unity enough to be named 
at all, and of course to be defined, until a visible organi- 
zation was made. It was in the family of Abraham that 
recipients of ecclesiastical promise — parents, children and 
proselytes together — were first gathered into the form of 
an organized church with the bond of a covenant and the 
seal of a sacrament. This visible church in one family 
was a unit, and has remained such in varieties of shape 
to this day. Through all subsequent descent, expansion, 
vicissitude, trial, triumph, exodus, backsliding and estab- 
lishment it was the same one visible Church, though 
numbering diversities of shape in succession as many 
as denominations to be counted now^ in the true visible 
Church. So the proto-martyr Stephen said in sub- 



ECCLESIA. 59 

stance, and would not have said if it had not been 
the mind of his Lord Jesus. Moses led that '* Church 
in the wilderness " and gave it ^' the lively oracles " 
which he received from the Angel of God as a commis- 
sion and trust to this visible Clmrch through all gen- 
erations, and the Messianic prediction of his lips — "A 
prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of 
your brethren like unto me; him shall ye hear" — is 
replete with visibility. As surely as Moses was a man 
and not a myth, and the children of Israel were a congre- 
gation and not an idea, and inspired genealogies were 
history and not fable, and the advent of Christ himself 
at length was the birth of a child at Bethlehem and not 
a phantasm, — so surely is the " great mystery of godli- 
ness'^ confided to one visible Church through all ages of 
time. 

So converge the prophecies of a future glory and ex- 
pansion of the Church on earth (Isa. ii. 2) : " The moun- 
tain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top 
of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; 
and all nations shall flow nnto it." No metaphors of 
the visible and unity of the visible could be more strik- 
ing. But we find in other places an emphatic identifica- 
tion of the same Old-Testament Church in pointing to 
her, impersonated in the singular number and with all 
sorts of pei'sonal pronouns, appropriating to one and the 
same visible body the promises of coming glory and en- 
largement : " My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words 
which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of 
thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out 
of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from 
henceforth and for ever. Arise, shine ; for thy light is 
come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. 



60 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and 
gross darkness the people : but the Lord shall arise upon 
thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gen- 
tiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness 
of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see ; 
all they gather themselves together, they come to thee ; 
thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters siiall 
be nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt see, and flow 
together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; 
because the abundance of the sea shall be converted 
unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto 
thee.'' Isa. Ix. 

If such prophecies fail to indicate one visible Church 
of old becoming catholic and universal in ^' the time of 
reformation " and by the spread of the gospel, though 
fallible as ever even with superior light, mingled as ever 
with " the abundance of the sea " and " the forces of the 
Gentiles,'' hardly half of them converted truly — an 
aggregate of increase more spiritual without being more 
holy, more civilizing and philanthropic without being 
more circumcised in heart; if wx must find a new 
Church in the New Testament, and that only in a 
germ of regeneration within each individual which no 
man can see or discriminate, — surely, then, we must for- 
bear to look and only imagine as we proceed to investi- 
gate. The Old Testament and the New are sundered 
ecclesiastically if we have no distinct definition of the 
Church as visible to study in our scheme of revealed 
institution. And even the New-Testament history is 
all a parable if there be nothing literal in the mention 
of '^ Church." The term is indeed of mystical import 
in passages where the context compels us to spiritualize 
and contemplate the invisible, but so are the sacraments, 



I 



ECCLESIA. 61 

baptism and the I^ord's Supper, occiisioually used as 
metaphors of spiritual aud uuseen realities. And yet 
we consider the Friends to be in grave error, who reject 
the literal ordinances called by these names, because of 
the exceptional figurative sense which they prefer. 

On the whole, we cling to tTie second as well as the 
first definition of ^^ Church" in our Confession of Faith, 
and say in our abbreviation for this department, It is a 
community separated from the rest of the world by a pro- 
fession of faith in Christ, and observance of his ordi- 
nances. 

The Visible Ecclesia. 

There can be no Church government without organiza- 
tion, of course, and, no functions of government being 
possible for man, as he is a member of the Church in- 
visible, except only those of the Holy Ghost in the 
work of inward sanctification by his agency, we must 
consider only the outward policy of administration 
ordained for the visible Church under the New-Testa- 
ment dispensation in pursuing discussions here. Three 
problems at the threshold require solution as far as it can 
be made in this world — the sectarian divisions which are 
painfully visible, the tests of unity by which we discern 
the true branches of our one olive tree, aud the phe- 
nomenon of mixture, good and bad together, in the best 
as well as the worst of these visible branches. 

I. Denominational distraction has always pertained to 
the visible Church, and has always been regarded as evil. 
" Great searchings of heart " among the tribal diversities 
in particular descent from the Father of the Faithful — 
for divisions of Reuben, envy of Ephraim, vexation of 
Judah and war of Benjamin — pictured what has followed 
wherever the Abrahamic covenant has broadened from 



62 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

the family in his house to that ecclesiastical covenant 
fulfilled, in which he was to be " the father of many 
nations." 

National names divide the visible Church, however 
closely ecclesiastic alliance may tend to unite the dif- 
ferent bodies in sympathy. Tradition, creed, prejudice 
and fashion also divide her, and, in so far as the true 
churches compete with one another without charity and 
co-operation, the disunion is to be deplored as unseemly 
and inexcusable. But, on the other hand, divisions and 
subdivisions of the Christian name are not unmingled 
evil and reproach. They correspond with the forecast 
of prophecy and the findings of prophecy fulfilled in the 
gathering glory of the visible Church ; and prophecy 
fulfilled is a main bulwark of Christianity. Count the 
triumphs of modern missions and survey the colors of 
light now diversified on the whole surface of this globe 
and contrasted with the dark which draped it when the 
century began. Give to every sect its own distinctive 
banner and let it wave, and to every language its own 
peculiar accent and let it speak the word of God ; give 
to every form of government its throne for kings to be 
the " nursing fathers and queens the nursing mothers," 
or its constitution of republican freedom to suit the 
glorious liberty of the sons of God : all these, and many 
more diversities which mar the uniformity that man 
would see, enhance the beauty of realization upon every 
hand, although they multiply divisions of the one visible 
Church. 

Again, diversities of organization suit the very nature 
of cultivated mind, which must have a freedom of choice 
among visible things and occasion to construct unity for 
each man's own judgment and taste from the contrariety 



( 



ECCLESIA. 63 

of materials in view. There is no unity found without 
numbers around it, and unity in variety seems to be the 
perfection of design through all the works of creation and 
providence. And why should '^ Ziou, the perfection of 
beauty," be anything else than many in one for our eyes 
to behold ? Instead of regretting to see the plural of 
other denominations crowding the settlements of our 
frontier, and especially its villages and infant cities, 
" rejoice and work righteousness " there, by strengthen- 
ing your own stake and lengthening your own cords in 
co-operation with all others, that can be encompassed for 
that great end of the visible Church the salvation of 
souls. Herein is her unity manifest, and herein the 
apparent evil of division is turned to far greater good. 
Another advantage of divisions in the visible Church 
is to gain the utmost of truth by witness-bearing : " Ye 
are my witnesses, saith the Lord ;" " Whereof we are 
witnesses," etc. Each division is produced by an 
emphasis — though exaggerated, probably — of some par- 
ticular truth in doctrine, polity, ordinance, or even mode 
and manner of worship. For such a truth it lifts a 
banner and separates in work and warfare. The most 
complete establishment of the whole truth in any cause 
must be derived from the concurrent testimony of all 
diversities, and so important is it for exact ascertainment 
of the truth that judicial wisdom will seek diversity and 
seclude one witness from hearing another depone, to find 
by examination and cross-examination of all partisan 
extremes a rightly balanced conclusion of the truth. 
Fair analogy such conclusion is to the discovered unity 
of the visible Church for all its evangelical divisions, and 
the right procedure to attain it is co-operation rather 
than consolidation. Organic union is hardly ever effected 



64 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

without a compromise of truth, more or less, and this cau 
hardly be done without reducing that fulness of attesta- 
tion to which the visible Church is called. 

These and other considerations which will occur to 
reflecting minds are quite enough to content us with 
visible divisions in the one visible Church ; but when 
witnesses fail to appear with others in the prosecution 
of a great cause, and refuse to co-operate in demonstrat- 
ing the value of truth or holiness by their works in the 
world, a question arises about their standing in ecclesias- 
tical recognition. Witnesses are not permitted to swear 
in court if they have sworn falsely before, and are not 
credible in making testimony when they are permitted 
without integrity of character as well as truthfulness 
to sustain what they affirm. And so among the bodies 
of the visible Church divided from others in preaching 
the gospel. 

II. It is of much importance ecclesiastically to decide 
what is and what is not a true branch of the visible 
Church. *^ Notes of the true Church " has been a crucial 
topic ever since the great Reformation, and it is remark- 
able that these notes have been abridged in proportion to 
the increase of ecclesiastical bodies. The accession of un- 
historical churches. Baptist, Brownist, Wesleyan and 
Quaker, has constrained abatement in the rigor of tests 
by the spiritual development of life in these Christian 
organizations. In the Scots Confession of 1560, John 
Knox, while discarding the Roman Catholic tests, ex- 
pressly inlaid as follows the position of Calvin and his 
successors at the Genevan school, adopted as his own : 
^' The notes, signs and assured tokens whereby the im- 
maculate spouse of Christ Jesus is known from the hor- 
rible harlot the Kirk malignant, we affirm, are neither 



ECCLESIA. 65 

Antiquity, Title usurped, lineal Descent, Place appointed, 
nor Multitude of men approving. . . . The notes, there- 
fore, of the true Kirk of God, we believe, confess and 
avow to be : First, the true preaching of the word of 
God, in the which God has revealed himself to us. 
Secondly, the right administration of the sacraments, 
which must be annexed to the word and promise of God 
to seal and confirm the same in our hearts. Lastly, ec- 
clesiastical discipline, uprightly ministered, as God's 
word prescribed, whereby vice is repressed and virtue 
nourished. Wheresoever, then, these notes are seen 
and of any time continue, be the number never so few 
above two or three, there, without all doubt, is the true 
Kirk of Christ, who, according to his promise, is in the 
midst of them — not that universal of which we have 
before spoken, but particular, such as was in Corinthus, 
Galatia, Ephesus and other places in which the ministry 
was planted by Paul, and which were of himself named 
the kirks of God. And such like we, the inhabitants 
of the realm of Scotland, professors of Christ Jesus, 
confess us to have in our cities, towns and places re- 
formed." 

All branches of the Reformation, Lutheran and Re- 
formed, agree with the Scots Confession to reject the 
Church of Rome as no true Church of Christ. Though 
Calvin made a distinction between the whole and con- 
jectural parts of this great apostasy, as we see in his 
Institutes, conceding that it was possible to deserve the 
name of "church'' in certain sodalities of Romanism, 
like that of the Jansenists a century after his day, yet, 
as Rome would never tolerate a branch in her Catholi- 
cism exceptionally evangelical in doctrine and spirit, but 
requires all or nothing in her ecclesia, he rejects with 

5 



QQ CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

totality, absolute as she is arrogant, her claim to be a 
true Cliurch at all: "Because those marks which we 
ought chiefly to regard in this controversy are obliterated, 
I affirm that the form of the legitimate Church is not to 
be found either in any one of their congregations or in 
the body at large." (See the last sentence of his ad- 
mirable chapter on the subject, Institutes, Book 4, chap. 
2.) It should be observed just here that Calvin and 
Knox were the first in Christendom since the days of 
Constantiue to particularize the local assembly as a 
church having distinct and substantive right to the 
name of "church." Though in every land the mere 
edifice might be called by metonymy a church when 
dedicated to Christian worship, yet the ecclesia itself was 
always a generalization signifying, even in Lutheran and 
Anglican literature, only the national idea, and perhaps 
the provincial at times, and in Greek and Roman eccle- 
siasticism the universe, indefinitely catholic. A par- 
ticular ecclesia was first denominated "church-kirk" in 
Scotland. The union of Church and State on the one 
hand and Puritan mightiness on the other, the former 
tendino^ to national breadth and the other to local inde- 
peudence, actually countervailed each other enough to 
secure the sacred a})pellation apart, for every congrega- 
tion of worshipers in Great Britain. 

The three marks of a true Church laid down by Knox 
have been virtually reduced to one, by the prevailing 
sentiment of the present age among evangelical churches. 
The Baptist denomination, however, and that of the 
Friends called " Quakers," occupy anomalous positions. 
They are not fairly comprehended in our definition of 
the visible Church — " all those throughout the world 
that profess the true religion, together with their chil- 



ECCLESIA. 67 

dren." It is in baptism that we make profession — 
baptizarl est 2?roJiter% said Ursinus ; and so say all his- 
torical churches that accept the old ecclesiastical covenant 
in the family of Abraham. This covenant has never 
been repealed nor superseded, but was proclaimed anew 
on the day of Pentecost, illustrated in household baptism 
by the apostles, and is manifestly now being fulfilled in 
the gathering of the Gentiles to inheritance with the 
Jews, in family institute and a covenant seal on its 
entirety, according to the volume of inspired prophecy. 
It is not " together with their children '' that Baptists 
are baptized. Family faith is only adult and individual, 
without sponsorial margin. The family covenant, always 
conditional in its promise, they do not distinguish at all 
from the covenant of grace, which in its nature is uncon- 
ditional to us. When Abraham had faith for his chil- 
dren and had the covenant seal administered to them, 
^' it was accounted to him for righteousness." Not that 
he was justified merely on account of his own personal 
faith, but that he was legally reckoned righteous by the 
grace of God in the good obedience of entire consecration, 
having his whole household share alike in the symbol 
and seal of family religion. 

Distant from us ecclesiastically are the Quakers also 
in the application of the second test, "a right adminis- 
tration of the sacraments," "the visible word," to be 
seen and taken and handled. The mysticism of this 
denomination, disparaging, if not discarding altogether, 
external ordinances of religion, including to a certain 
extent even the objective Scriptures, may so exhibit in 
life the things signified in the sacraments and taught in 
the Scriptures as to stand the test of the first great note, 
and the third also, notwithstanding the literal disobedi- 



68 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

ence of omitting the right administration of sacraments. 
Quietism was once the refuge of piety, when it fled the 
noise of sounding brass and tinkling cymbals in the 
show of that huge exterior which drove a true Church 
to the wilderness ; and why should this Church, reformed 
and restored, object to the shelter we can afford, for that 
silent protest against forms which goes to the opposite 
extreme of inward light? On the whole, in view of the 
fact that our Christian faith is not merely or mainly 
sacramentarian, and thankful to God for this, like the 
apostle Paul (1 Cor. i. 14), and notwithstanding our 
Baptist brethren exaggerate the baptism of a parent 
and yet refuse to let him profess for his child, and 
although the Quaker Friends cremate the visible ordi- 
nances with fire within themselves, and will have no 
ecclesiasticism but what is spiritual and angelic, — yet 
both these bodies — at least, in the orthodox division of 
eacb — holding the pure word of God to be preached and 
read with the right of private judgment, and therefore 
holding all ecclesiastical problems to be soluble aright in 
revelation and reason, are fairly entitled to be enrolled in 
the sisterhood of true visible churches. 

Especially so in considering the third chief note of a 
true Church — the right exercise of discipline, surrounding 
their folds with muniment of divine appointment to re- 
press the follies and rebuke offences, which mar the con- 
sistency of a good profession. In this respect these 
modern churches compare most favorably with two of 
the historical churches — the Lutheran and the Anglican. 
Neither the Augsburg Confession nor the " Thirty-nine 
Articles" contain any provision for the censorship of 
morals. Herein is a memorable contrast between the 
two great branches of the Reformation. Zuinglius and 



ECCLESIA. 69 

Calvin began with the postulate, that a reformation of 
manners should 2:0 hand in hand with reformation of 
doctrine, but Luther and Melanchthon thought it enough 
to secure a life becoming the gospel to fill believers with 
gratitude and love, trusting to the expulsive power of a 
new affection the regulation of life and prevention of 
scandal. The only office of the law, according to these 
great teachers, must bo that of a schoolmaster to bring 
men to Christ, and hence Luther's catechism puts the 
commandments before the doctrines, whilst the Reformed 
in their catechisms put the doctrines of grace first and the 
moral law second, holding the latter to be also a rule of 
life in the hand of a Mediator. 

The Church of England has nothing in her standards 
except one of her authorized homilies to indicate this 
great ordinance of discipline, which our Lord enjoins, 
and with which the head of the last surviving apostle 
was so filled in the vision of Patraos, and, although she 
is classed with the Reformed by historians, she ought to 
be marked as an exception, being Lutheran more than 
Calvinistic. The tendency of both these bodies having 
been toward alliance with the State in some definite 
form, and therefore to be imbued more or less with 
Erastianism, which defers to the civil authority the 
censorship of morals within as well as without the 
Church, we must let the deformity of this effect alone 
till every such unhallowed affinity be dissolved. And 
yet, however inapplicable the third note of a true Church 
may be to these renowned churches, and however doubt- 
ful the second may be, the right administration of sacra- 
ments, it is clear as the sun that the first and all-engross- 
ing mark is theirs, the Bible, unchained, and *' not 
bound," the promises of God, the gospel of his kingdom, 



70 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

the "lively oracles^' committed to them both, to be 
preached and read, with the right of all people to judge 
for themselves. However much we regret the vexation 
with which neological criticism in Lutheran Germany 
has been sifting the sayings of God by his Spirit, and 
however confused the many translations and challenges 
of the text itself in England, these bodies both do sing 
in their anthems, "The words of the Lord are pure 
words; as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified 
seven times." This must ever be the song of a true 
Church, wherever the people in common are allowed to 
read the word for themselves. 

Thus we see how comprehensive and sufficient is the 
first note of a true visible Church, and how the^ second 
and third may be reduced to this one ; how the sacra- 
ments are the word made visible in signs and only less 
edifying when these aliments of life are not literally 
touched and handled; how Anabaptism itself, however 
alien from the original and perpetuated covenant of 
promise in the family, and therefore hardly ecclesiastic 
at all, has, in possessing a pure gospel, the covenant of 
grace " ordered in all things and sure,'' and how churches 
that are wanting in the scriptural ordinance of discipline 
are destined to overtake it in the progress of purifica- 
tion by the word, when union with the State is dissolved 
and they come to bind and loose on earth by the faithful 
and formal application of divine words to offences. 

Thus we see, also, that this cardinal test becomes a 
bond of unity combining many and great divei'sities of 
form and faith in one visible Church — the more intensely 
one as these diversities produce a rival and animated 
competition for one and the same great object, the con- 
version of the world to Christ. This object and this 



ECCLESIA. 71 

bond must ever compress variatioDS to visible unity and 
one that lives. This pyramid of Churcli diversities, 
each one of which has in itself this word of life and 
"lively stones," must be living at the top, for the Head 
is Christ, and every different organism which holds to 
his evangel must be a member of his ecclesiastical body, 
deriving life and animation from himself. Without this 
head and without this evangel there can be no true branch 
of the one visible Church, for the head is the source of 
life, and the gospel is the circulating life-blood in any 
true ecclesiastical formation. Hence the Socinians are 
not fellow-members in such a body, because they deny 
that our exalted Saviour and Head is " very God," and 
they are therefore without an adequate headship to com- 
municate life, influence, power and unction to such a 
diversified body, which must overspread the world 
through all coming generations of men. A decapitated 
body is a lifeless trunl^. 

The Roman Catholic Church also, by refusing to let 
the people hear and read the word of God and interpret 
for themselves its meaning, must be excluded from this 
true and one visible Church on earth, because the one 
chief test to which all others may be reduced condemns 
the despotism that " takes away the key of knowledge " 
and will not allow, among either Jews or Christians, 
any traditions but Roman to build up the unity which 
God approves. It was, therefore, a Avise deliverance for 
the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church to say 
in 1835 "that it is the deliberate and decided judgment 
of this Asseml)ly that the Roman Catholic Church has 
essentially apostatized from the religion of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ, and therefore cannot be recognized 
as a Christian Church." (See Baird's Collections, p. 560.) 



72 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

If the papal Church would give the Bible to the people 
as Protestant churches do, the hierarchy and superstition 
which we disapprove should not hinder us from recon- 
sidering this exclusion. Life in her feet might slowly 
restore itself to the heart, and even to the head. Such is 
the problem of divisions in the visible Church. They 
are unity in variety. Adhesion jointly to God's eternal 
word, as the only rule of faith and life for all members 
to use, makes unity enough in the militant Church. 
Diversities of name and banner and drill and organism 
only heighten the life of one great army. Organisms of 
both the being and the well-being in bodies are instinct 
with life and energy, in proportion to their interaction 
with diverse kinds. The unity of mere uniformity is 
inorganical and usually dead as a stone. Mutual charity 
is the great irenicon we need for diversities of form to 
win the world to Christ and his kingdom. Co-operation, 
again we say, is better than consolidation. 

III. We are now to cease counting the external 
divisions of the one visible Church, and balancing the 
good of this apparent evil, as we proceed to consider the 
third embarrassment of ecclesiastical faith, in finding no 
perfection of light or holiness in any Church under 
heaven. The visible Church, alike in general and par- 
ticular build, has a motley interior. Essential conditions 
of the visible in this world are mixture and mistake. 
Men must decide according to the credible, not the 
certain : God only knows the heart. Yet even God in- 
cai'nate allowed one who had a devil to enter the original 
band of disciples, and to fall from the forming ranks of 
Christianity with open and horrid apostasy. It is his 
will, then, that the visible Church be a mixed society at 
present, and that her sentinels, however vigilant and 



ECCLESIA. 73 

faithful, may be deceived by the false and the designing 
— his will, recorded even less in this inscrutable per- 
mission than in the necessary constitution of a militant 
Church. 

We must, therefore, be assured that good results from 
this mixture, however much the enemies of Christ are 
scandalized and his followers aggrieved by the facts in 
every age. It is the obligation of piety and hope to dis- 
criminate this good in order to vindicate this economy, 
and, while deploring the inability of human efforts to 
present the Church on earth without spot or wrinkle, or 
any such thing, to see that He who will at length achieve 
this glory does even now illustrate his overruling care in 
the very spots she wears and deformity she bemoans. 

This mingled composition of the visible Church ex- 
hibits the analogy, which runs through all things that 
God allows beneath the sun. The world is a mixture. 
Good and evil are found together in every country and 
clime and age and generation, every condition of life, 
every pursuit of man and attainment which he proposes 
for betterment to himself and others. All is chequered, 
and God approves the right and abhors the wrong. Yet 
the world is his, and the fulness thereof. He owns it as 
his, preserves it as his, and neither the pride of philoso- 
phy nor the presumption of religion has ever stolen from 
himself the secret of evil in its origin, or the reason why 
he permits it on this planet of his own creation. And 
look at the noblest work of God on earth — a regenerated 
man. His soul is profoundly mixed. To him grace is 
given to mix light with darkness, life with death, liberty 
with bondage. There is a law in his members warring 
with the law of his mind, a spark of inextinguishable 
holiness pervading a gulf of corruption; yet he is God's 



74 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

workmanship, God's building, pre-eminently, owned and 
clierished, sustained and blessed, with the peculiar care 
of a heavenly Father. To say, then, that a true Church 
must be no mingled society, having children in it incapa- 
ble of faith, and adults in it who are deceiving and de- 
ceived, is to say that the Church must be purer than tlie 
very souls of the faithful, and without analogy in the 
works of both nature and grace. 

This latitude of the visible Church is to the world 
a boon of incalculable benefit. It is a restraint upon 
sin : men are obviously kept from misdemeanor by a 
formal profession. The pride of consistency, the force 
of habit and the fondness of good-fellowship alone will 
induce the decencies of a harmless, and even commend- 
able, life in the promotion of temporal welfare. How- 
ever hateful and wicked hypocrisy must be, and injurious 
to religion the deaduess of a false professor, yet the sins 
which formality fetters and prevents would be vastly 
more baleful to the world than all the harm that hollow- 
hearted insincerity could ever occasion. Restraining 
grace in mercy to mankind goes hand in hand with 
mortifying grace ; and, though the latter alone reaches 
the fountain of iniquity, the former banks in its flood 
and compels corruption itself to own the majesty and 
power of truth. 

Let the chimera of unmingled regeneracy in the 
Church on earth be furnished with some infallible 
standard of experience, in searching the hearts of pro- 
fessors and turning out all that are not Israelites indeed 
who by the force of early associations, the love of appro- 
bation, the fears of conscience, the delusion of false hope, 
or even the sinister motive of present advantage in the 
world, are in the Church, but not of it, in the inward 



ECCLESIA. 75 

man; and at the breaking up of concealment would be 
the sundering of restraint, and floodgates of impiety 
would be opened to deluge the world, and then would 
come judgments of Heaven to destroy the nation. It is 
not so much tlie want of genuine piety as open trans- 
gression which insults his law with overt acts, that pro- 
vokes the judgments of God on governments of men. 
It is not till hypocrisy itself is dead that the cup of a 
nation's iniquity is full. That economy of the Church, 
therefore, which comprehends all that come to make an 
open confession of Christ as the Author and Finisher of 
their faith, and do not discredit such profession with 
traits of character obviously inconsistent with its avowal 
in the judgment of charity, must have upon the world, 
whether truly converted or not, an influence to keep it 
safe from miseries which openly unrighteous men pro- 
voke. If they are no more than formal professors, their 
contact with men of the world is all the more intimate 
and genial and effective in its influence, while, on the 
other side, a credible profession wins the influence on 
themselves for good, of truly spiritual men, thus mak- 
ing a circuit of salutary influence, through this inscru- 
table mixture of the true and the seeming, to repel 
iniquity and enhance the happiness of Christian civil- 
ization. 

But, more than this, the mere external profession 
which is credible at all must greatly benefit the Church 
herself, adding to her daily such as are saved, by the in- 
fluence of parents on their children, and outwardly con- 
sistent professors on the outward world, leading men to 
the means of grace and adding to the visible resources 
which God has ordained for the propagation and trans- 
mission of his ^'glorious gospel." Doubtless, millions 



76 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

untold of saints on high and multitudes of saintly 
members in the Church invisible, yet living here, have 
been led to salvation by means of a merely formal ad- 
herence of others to Christ and his ordinances. And 
could we stand at the door of the Church to keep such 
professors out by some spiritual acumen for discerning 
regenerated souls with certainty, making an invisible 
quality the required passport to a visible Church, a vast 
proportion of the resources — intellect, learning, wealth 
and power — which God has given by his word and 
providence to the visible Church must be shut off and 
lost. It is not in human nature to endow and promote 
any cause with which one cannot be identified even in 
name. Suppose a certainly regenerated membership 
the standard of admission, which the dream of a Church 
on earth without a hypocrite in her number must pro- 
pose, were applied to the great men of her annals in the 
past ; how many of them might be rejected ! — Tertullian 
for his Moutanism, Origen for his Restorationism, Euse- 
bius Pamphilius for his Arianism, Jerome for his violent 
temper, Erasmus for his indecision, Grotius for his ra- 
tionalism. And so on through subsequent generations 
of piercing Puritanism to this day : scores of eminent 
churchmen who have enriched the Christian Church 
with treasures of learning might have battled with fear- 
ful ability against her if by the insight of fallible men 
the certainly converted only could be accepted members 
in the visible fold. 

Money, as well as mind, has been secured to the 
Church by this mixture of the true and the seeming. 
Divine wisdom has ordained that silver and gold shall 
be used in the kingdom of Christ, and that even enemies 
in heart to the cross of Christ shall be made to help it 



ECCLESIA, 77 

with their gains. And men will not help with their 
substance a cause with which they cannot have a nominal 
connection, however well they may behave, without being 
subjected to some inquisition which pretends to see the 
invisible within us. Such perfection of the visible 
Church might remove much of her dross, but certainly 
would lose much more of the gold from her treasures — 
perishable and worthless of itself, but divinely appointed 
for instrumentalities of mighty importance in the progress 
of Christianity on earth. 

But more than this by far is the protection which this 
external economy secures from robbery and persecution. 
Nominal professors, confessedly a disgrace in general, 
are often a shield of safety for genuine professors. Un- 
substantial husks cover the precious seed and screen it 
from a blasting hostility. The world hates the Church 
with as fierce a malignity as ever, and we are not with- 
out ominous monition at present that new agnostic ad- 
versaries of atheistic venom and socialistic virulence 
wait only for a change of circumstances to blot out 
Christian civilization itself and dye the scaffold afresh 
with the blood of saints. The chief preventing security 
for the Church is the number of her professing friends. 
Their adherence in form conceals her weakness, and the 
partisan though heartless array compels forbearance. 
Nominal professors are not much hated by her ene- 
mies, and would be spared if they were not to be struck 
at first because they are near. Those very men who 
now revile the Church because she is mingled with 
hypocrites, and make it their capital objection to Chris- 
tianity that so many in the ranks are false, would, if 
the ranks were winnowed and the faithful only mar- 
shaled at the cross, behold her fewness with avenging 



78 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

scorn and consider it again the signal for making havoc 
of the Church.* 

But there should be an end of controversy on the 
subject, when we open the Bible and look through both 
the Testaments. Here we find a fourfold and consecu- 
tive authentication of that ecclesiastical covenant which 
made Abraham '^ the father of many nations '' — type and 
prophecy and history and parable. The ancient Church, 
a type, and yet substantially one with the new, was 
embodied in a host of backsliding people murmuring, 
discontented and seditious, with but very few " of an- 
other spirit '^ like Caleb and Joshua, in all the march 
through a wilderness to Canaan. The later prophecies 
of Isaiah with teeming diversities of metaphor describe 
the expansion of the New-Testament Church as that of 
the Old, with greater variations and vaster accessions to 
the same visibility : ^' Lengthen thy cords, and strengthen 
thy stakes ;^^ "Thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles." 
Chap. liv. And then, as " the kingdom of heaven '' is 
set forth in parables by the lips of our Lord himself, it 
is in the parabolic phrase of mixture for analogy. It is 
likened to seed sown iu stony ground and among thorns 
as well as in good ground ; to a field sown with good 
seed, and mixed with tares by a subsequent sowing of 
the enemy, yet the tares to be left with the wheat till 
the ultimate harvest; to a net cast into the sea and gath- 
ering fish of every kind, which are to be separated, the 
good from the bad, only at the end of the world, when 
the angels come '^ to sever the wicked from among the 
just;" to a marriage entertainment where one was ad- 
mitted in a regular way without a wedding-garment; 
and, in short, to everything in nature which can repre- 
* Mason's Essays on the Church. 



ECCLESIA. 79 

sent an assemblage of mortals entitled to the same par- 
ticipation of privilege and benefit provided for time in 
God's family covenant, and destined to an ultimate search 
and separation when the secrets of all hearts shall be 
made manifest. 

On the whole, this economy of the visible Church is 
*' God's husbandry '^ and needs not apology or explana- 
tion beyond the verification by his word, and it is only 
to indicate the solution of difficulty found by superficial 
acquaintance with his whole revelation, and by mystical 
dreamers who would make over again and better what he 
has made good enough for all mankind, that we have 
made any attempt to vindicate the unsearchable way in 
which he brings good out of evil. Strange as it may 
seem, only those who acquiesce in this divine economy 
are qualified to guard with proper vigilance and fidelity 
the door of entrance into the visible Church. As the 
true believer will aim at perfection the more he finds it 
unattainable in the present life, so the churchman who 
inherits from the father of them that believe will seek 
to preserve the heritage from abuse and reproach by 
keeping off as much as in him lies the profane and the 
ignorant. On the contrary, it is the enthusiast who 
deems it possible to make up a body of undoubted 
saints in his visible assembly that is always quick to 
concede a word for the shibboleth or a good feeling for 
the test, and by any and all means fill his tabernacle 
without scruple about the credibility or temper of his 
keys in opening the kingdom of heaven. 



CHAPTER III. 
THE ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTE. 

WE have considered ecclesia in the different senses of 
its application according to the Scripture. We 
have reckoned the aspect of unity in the divisions of the 
visible Church as manifested in co-operation rather than 
organic union, animated more than distracted by diver- 
sities of name and banner, the great object being one 
and the same — a conquest of the world to Christ — and 
the bond of unity being the test of legitimacy and one 
to which all other notes of a true Church may be reduced, 
the gospel of the grace of God contained in his holy 
word, and that a mingled condition of the true and the 
seeming in every branch of the visible Church member- 
ship waits, according to the Bible, for divine solution at 
the last, and divine overruling meanwhile. And let us 
now contemplate the organized existence of the Church 
and institutionary marks in that particular framework 
which reason and revelation both approve. 

The main ecclesiastical difference between the Old 
Testament and the New is a duality of service in the 
former and unity in the latter dispensation. Worship 
and instruction were divided of old between the temple 
and the synagogue ; in the Christian Church they are 
united. Any public service now which does not com- 

80 



THE ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTE. 81 

biue preaching or teaching with prayer and singing at 
one session of the people is incomplete, and belongs 
rather to the old Jewish ritual. The question, then, 
arises, How are the two separated elements of ancient 
ordinance made one under the gospel in its administra- 
tion henceforth ? Were the temple and the synagogue 
both superseded by a new institution at the coming of 
Christ? Or has one of them continued and the other 
become obsolete, as a type must be when the antitype 
has come according to promise? 

We answer affirmatively to the last of these questions, 
and aver that the ecclesia called synagogue does continue 
substantially the same ecclesiastical institute it was in the 
days of David, and that the tabernacle or temple service 
in its main symbolical purpose, with sacrifice and cere- 
mony and priesthood, was finished in the advent of 
Christ ; and its vain persistency to exist in form a 
century longer was utterly destroyed by the contempt- 
uous Roman emperor Hadrian. That annihilation of 
the Jewish state, like many a lapsed inheritance in every 
age, started a scramble for the spoils, and tempted the 
ambition of ecclesiastics in the second century to claim 
the vanished priesthood and gradations of rank in three 
orders as their own right by survival, making another 
species of ecclesia, divergent from both the two of Old- 
Testament ordination. And we know whither this new 
departure proceeded when, a century later, Cyprian him- 
self declared that the Church of Christ is " built upon 
the bishops.'' Let us, then, return to the synagogue 
and see, in its origin, organism, exercise, changes and 
continuance, the true ecclesiastical institute, method- 
izing through all the ages that ecclesiastical covenant 
which began with the family of Abraham, and bears 



82 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

the blessing to all nations in the ark of this con- 
structure.* 

A name is nothing without a history. The term 
"synagogue," at "the fulness of time" and since, would 
seem to hav^ lost the generic sense in which it was origi- 
nally used in descending to become a designation for the 
local and particular assembly, and even the house itself 
of worship, among the Jews. The word ao)^aycoyrj is 
used in the Septuagint as a translation of some twenty 
Hebrew words in which the notion of gathering is im- 
plied. Scholars have counted one hundred and thirty 
instances in which it is used by the LXX. to render the 
Hebrew word nijtr, the idea of which is appointed meet- 
ing, and twenty- five times in which it renders ^^^p, mean- 
ing a called meeting or assembly. In the same sense of 
gathering together it is used by Thucydides and Plato, 
Ignatius and Clement of Alexandria. We must, there- 
fore, correlate the synagogue with all the varieties of ex- 
pression which denote religious meetings of old — the 
proseuchse, the oratories, the schools of the prophets, 
the resort to a prophet at the times of new moon and 
the Sabbath and the still more ancient form of implica- 
tion " before the Lord :" " Moses of old time hath them 
that preach him, being read in the synagogues every 
Sabbath day." Acts xv. 21. 

This antiquity must have been coeval at least with the 
settlement of Israel in the Land of Promise, and proba- 
bly remoter than the institution of tabernacle and temple 
for the ceremonial worship enjoined upon the people, and 
presumptively ancient as the birth of Enos, grandson of 
Adam, when, we are told, " men began to call upon the 
name of the Lord," or, as in the margin, "call them- 
* Vitringa, De Synagoga Vetere, passim. 



THE ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTE. 83 

selves by the name of the Lord/' prayer and profession 
implied, and, of course, a concourse of people assumed.* 
However this may be, we cannot agree with Dean Pri- 
deaux that the words " of old " in the quotation from 
James at the Council of Jerusalem could not mean in- 
definite antiquity, because Moses could not be " read '' in 
the synagogues before they had books, and they had no 
books before the Captivity and exile at Babylon. Doubt- 
less, the dean must have known that oral reading from 
the memory of teachers and actors long preceded a manu- 
script on the desk, and the manuscript long preceded a 
book to be read ; that thousands in Greece and E-ome 
heard Homer and Virgil recited from the memory of 
strollino^ amateurs as if read from a book. So it must 
have been at these places of sacred instruction when 
copies of the law were not to be had even by rulers of 
the old theocracy, and long before the canon of Old-Tes- 
tament Scripture was completed. And when the learned 
and pertinacious Prideaux adds, " It being the same 
absurdity to suppose a Jewish synagogue without a copy 
of the law as it would with us to suppose a parish church 
without a Bible," he must have forgotten that hundreds 
of "parish churches," for hundreds of years before 
Queen Elizabeth, through insular and continental Eu- 
rope, had not a Bible to read in the sanctuary. Besides, 
it is evident confusion of mind in that eminent scholar 
to use the term " synagogue " in its latest, narrow, par- 
ticular and local sense in measuring its antiquity, instead 
of that earlier and generic sense in which he admits it 
had been used convertibly with the "proseuchae" of old 
— places of meetings for prayer which both Philo and 
Josephus identify with the synagogue. And even if 
* Vitringa, De Synagoga Vetere, 271 et seq. 



84 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

the word in its general sense of ^^ gathering '' for sacred 
teaching and devotion before the retnrn from exile 
should not occur in the Jewish annals, there is no more 
force in this omission against a greater antiquity of this 
institution than there is against a Sabbath in Israel be- 
cause it is not mentioned in a long stretch of five hun- 
dred years in Old-Testament history. 

This indefinite antiquity of the institution may well 
presume that it originated in some order and intimation 
of God himself to patriarch or prophet, especially as we 
know that through all the ages the latter had precedence 
of the elder as often as he came along with credentials 
of a prophet to preside or officiate in the meeting. 
This presumption is greatly strengthened by the nature 
of such an institute in its functions, its officers appointed 
and oracles committed in trust for the interpretation and 
transmission of divine behests. It was the school of 
moral instruction for theocratic Israel, and not only 
ethical^ but legal — a law-school in its tuition for all 
the tribes — and its commentaries were given to every 
corner of the realm. Prophets, priests, Levites and 
elders were interchangeably the teachei-s, and all of these 
were distinctly the appointment of God. Hence, both 
Joseph us and Philo believed that the synagogue origi- 
nated from divine intimation to Moses. "And from 
that time to this,^^ said Philo, " the Jews are wont to 
inculcate the principles of their religion on the seventh 
days, setting apart that time to the study and contempla- 
tion of the things of nature; for the oratories which are 
in every city — what are they but schools of wisdom, of 
fortitude, sobriety, justice and piety, and of every vir- 
tue ?" And for the accommodation of Levitical preachers 
manses with glebe, or "suburbs," attached were to be 



THE ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTE. 85 

assigned to them according to divine direction ; and this 
resulted in the giving of forty-eight cities by lot, in 
which all the tribes participated, to the sons of Levi, 
that all might have a fair convenience in attending the 
synagogue, as we now call the places of meeting. And 
can we conceive all this designation of persons whom 
God appointed to such service apart from the temple, 
and see his authority in everything of local accommoda- 
tion and work and details of exercise, and yet believe 
that the gathering there was unauthorized by himself 
and a mere contrivance of human wisdom ? 

That his people might have no confusion of mind 
about the duality of the Levitical service at the synagogue 
and at the temple by turns, mark how divine inspiration 
expresses the distinction at a breath on the lips of Moses 
in his farewell blessing of Israel (Deut. xxxiii. 10) : 
"They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy 
law : they shall put incense before thee, and burnt sacri- 
fice upon thine altar.'' Here we see the synagogue is first 
in the prophetic benediction, and as we descend the stream 
of prophecy to the very last of the canon we find in 
Malachi (ii. 5-7) that the commission to Levi is itself 
denominated " covenant " without indicating any longer 
service at the temple, as if the duality of exercise in ad- 
ministering the ecclesiastical covenant with Abraham 
were now approaching its ultimate unity in preaching 
and teaching the kingdom of heaven for all people: 
" My covenant was with him of life and peace ; and I 
gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, 
and was afraid before my name. The law of truth was 
in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips : he 
walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many 
away from iniquity. For the priest's lips should keep 



86 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth : 
for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." How 
much do these words of sublime expostulation with Levi 
resemble and foreshadow the last great commission of 
our risen Lord and the pastoral charges with which it 
had been preceded ! And shall we say, then, that all 
this belonged to an institute of old not appointed of 
God, nor inside and antecedent and part of that Church 
against which "the gates of hell shall not prevail ''? 

But, more than the nature and exercise and officers 
given to the Old-Testament ecclesia, we find that other 
ordinances, confessedly divine at the origin, w^ere dis- 
pensed in the synagogue rather than in the tabernacle or 
the temple. The sacraments of old — circumcision and the 
passover — when ministered at all at religious meetings 
outside of the family circle, were observed at this insti- 
tution. There was no solemnity for children at the tem- 
ple-service except a formal presentation of the first-born 
son. And if the one hundred and twenty-seventh psalm 
was sung at the temple — " Lo, children are an heritage 
of the Lord," etc. — this had to be explained and applied 
at the synagogue, where the seals of the covenant were 
kept and affixed. Add to this important trust the 
great ordinance of discipline — a divine appointment 
from the beginning to the end of revelation for the 
preservation, honor and sanctification of the Church. 
The elders' bench was the court of justice and censor- 
ship of morals, and to this day Christian people are 
hardly allowed to seek any other tribunal until this 
one is tried. Now, again, we may ask, is it conceivable 
that God would choose for the depository of his own 
best treasure on earth — his w^ord, his sacraments, his 
ministers and seals and benches of justice — an institution 



THE ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTE. 87 

which he did not originate with any intimation to any of 
his servants? 

But if the pertinacious objectors will have it that the 
Christian church was to be modelled after the temple, 
and therefore we must regard the synagogue as merely 
man's invention, unless we find a precise record in the 
Bible of its divine ordination, we reply in this place to 
such assertion and demand, that God certainly approves an 
a2)pointment as his own which must result from a neces- 
sity created by himself It is obviously sound theology 
and logic to say that a necessary inference must be forcible 
as the premises from which it is drawn; likewise that 
the errand of divine revelation was not to supersede the 
faculty of reason, wherever it is competent to discover 
truth and fact involved in the premises divinely given. 
Now, when we consider the circumstances of Israel and 
the whole economy of the situation at their settlement 
in Palestine, how by word and providence both it was 
made impossible for the families to worship at the taber- 
nacle or temple, how males only, and that but three times 
in the year, could go over hills and valleys by difficult 
and often impassable roads, we must see that they were 
not provided for in the facilities of religion more than 
were the heathen around them, if they were not author- 
ized of God to attend conventicles for worship and in- 
struction which were nearer at hand. 

And the necessity was vastly enhanced by considering 
the obligations devolved upon all the tribes to be well 
instructed in the knowledoje and observances of relisriou 
— upon every individual apart and every family apart 
and every tribe apart : " Therefore, shall ye lay uj) these 
my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them 
for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets 



88 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

between your eyes. And ye shall teach them to your 
children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine 
house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou 
liest down and when thou risest up ; and thou shalt 
write them upon the doorposts of thine house and upon 
thy gates." Deut. xi. 18. And when. we turn to the 
"Psalm for Asaph, to give instruction" (Ps. Ixxviii. 5), 
sung at the temple for the synagogue and perpetuating 
indefinitely the tradition mentioned therein, how conclu- 
sively does its inspiration prove the institute itself to 
have been of God in the original ! — " He established a 
testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which 
he commanded our fathers, that they should make them 
known to their children; that the generation to come 
might know them, even the children which should be 
born ; who should arise and declare them to their chil- 
dren ; that they might set their hope in God, and not 
forget the works of God, but keep his commandments." 
There it was that such fidelity of parents to their chil- 
dren was enjoined — as it should be still — in presence of 
the children. 

Now, if all this necessity, occasioned by the covenant 
God made with Abraham, and the geography God made 
for Israel, and the innumerable injunctions to teach and 
be taught which he devolved upon all the people, may 
not conclude with certainty an instrumental ecclesia of 
divine warrant to make it all practicable and convenient 
for obedience, then we have here the strangest enigma to 
be found in all the Testaments. But there is no diffi- 
culty with common sense. Assuredly, such a divine 
necessity is the mother of such a divine invention : " I 
wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of 
witty inventions." It must be conceded at the very least 



THE ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTE. 89 

that the slightest intimations anywhere in Holy Scripture 
suffice to confirm this conclusion — a conclusion which 
Lightfoot expresses in these words : '^ What could they 
do without synagogues, but lose the law, sabbath, re- 
ligion, and the knowledge of God and themselves, and 
all?" Some of the scriptural intimations are these 
(Lev. xxiii. 3): "Six days shall work be done, but the 
seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation." 
Bishop Stillingfleet in his Irenicum says that the reason 
for erecting synagogues was "grounded on this com- 
mand." What else can be meant by "holy convoca- 
tion " as regular rest and refreshing on the Sabbath ? 
Historical incidents gleaned from both Testaments are 
even more incisive as unequivocal indications that regu- 
lar opportunities and means of grace were furnished to 
God's people by his authority at this ancient ecclesia, so 
distinct from the temple. When the Shuuammite, in 
anguish of heart for the death of her son, hastened to 
" run to the man of God," her husband, without know- 
ing yet the cause of such urgency, asked, " Wherefore 
wilt thou go to him to-day ? it is neither new moon nor 
Sabbath." Surely, Elisha was not far off and had some 
well-known place of regular ministration and occasional 
comfort in religion, according to God's appointment, 
apart from the central sanctuary at Jerusalem, or he 
would not have had the divine signet to his ministry 
in the miracle of restoring that child to life. 2 Kings 
iv. 10. Again, we have synagogues expressly called 
"synagogues of God" (Ps. Ixxiv. 8): "They have burnt 
up all the synagogues of God in the laud." No matter 
how much learned critics may have tortured both the 
original and the translation here, or what Asaph it was 
— whether in David's or Hezekiah's or Nehemiah's time 



90 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

— he is named as the author of this inspired psahn 
before or after the Babylonish exile or the substitution 
of ^^ assemblies " for ^' synagogues ;'' in the translation 
it is all the -same to us in being that plural of religious 
meetings, and of course regular places of meeting, 
throughout all the land which God himself had author- 
ized and the cruel invaders of Israel had burnt and 
destroyed. 

New-Testament history also is rich with instructive 
incidents to the same effect. The attachment of our 
Lord to the synagogue is remarkable. There he wor- 
shipped in his youth and in his manhood. The record 
of his utterances there, at Nazareth, at Capernaum and 
all the synagogues of Galilee is replete with internal 
evidence that he regarded that institution as the Old- 
Testament Church in form. There he began the New- 
Testament preaching (Luke iv. 20) and explained the 
secret of its great commission to all generations : ^' The 
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed 
me to preach the gospel to the poor,'^ etc. There his 
mightiest works of healing were performed, and in all 
his words and works in the flesh he never hinted by 
word or action that the ecclesia found and founded there 
was destined to pass away. It is true that there, as 
well as everywhere else, he rebuked hypocrisy and pride 
in "the time of reformation" which came with his min- 
istry, and it is true that his errand was not institutionary 
in its nature; yet in coming "not to destroy but to 
fulfil '^ it is very certain that he did fulfil the destina- 
tion of the old ecclesiastical institute — not to pass away 
with the temple, but to stand with a new anointing, and 
to inherit all fitting solemnities from both lines in the 
duality of old, the prophetical here, and the sacerdotal 



THE ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTE. 91 

there ; now to be only one — the word, sacraments, prayer 
and singing praise for ever. 

On the other hand, how different was his bearing 
toward the temple ! When his disciples came to show 
him the buildings of the temple, he prophesied imme- 
diately its ruin, " Verily I say unto you, There shall 
not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not 
be thrown down/' Although he taught at the temple 
assiduously, and performed benignant cures, and zeal- 
ously protested against the degeneracy and pollution 
with which it was defiled, this ministration was that 
of a prophet rather than of a priest — the same that 
he exercised in the synagogue, where ceremonies gave 
place to instruction, ritualism to education and shad- 
ows to substance. In all this the apostles followed 
their Master, and, though entrusted with the work of 
laying foundations and formulating for the future of 
the Church, they confessed that " other foundation can 
no man lay than that is laid," and virtually owned 
that other ecclesia could not be built than what had 
been erected in at least forty-eight particular places, to 
which official teachers had been assigned by divine 
direction. This was manifested in their "Acts,'' and 
in their silence also. Wherever they could obtain the 
opportunity, in missions at home or abroad, they taught 
and worked at the synagogue, of course complying with 
all the becoming regulations of this institution. It had 
passed through many changes in coming down from 
their fathers without altering the main features with 
which it had been constituted, and so it should be con- 
tinued. In details of usage accommodated to circum- 
stances and people of different kinds, it had always 
fitted the occasion and the need ; so it should be now. 



92 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

The gospel in ty])es and signs of sacramental signifi- 
cance suited to the faith of their fathers in mode was 
now to be the gospel finished and proclaimed to all 
people, testified and signed by sacraments of conspicu- 
ous simplicity which would last for ever. This was no 
revolution of ecclesia, but only that versatile conformity 
which it was made to exhibit from its origin as a system 
in which the '^ many nations " that are covenanted to 
Abraham as an ecclesiastical father have ever found, 
and will ever find, authority, liberty and law combined 
essentially, whatever may be the variations of method 
and administration. 

Here we may quote the Avords of Archbishop Whately 
of Dublin in signal adaptation to the conclusion we 
reach : ^' It appears highly probable — I may say morally 
certain — that wherever a Jewish synagogue existed that 
was brought, the whole or the chief part of it, to em- 
brace the gospel, the apostles did not there so much 
form a Christian church as make an existing congregation 
Christian by introducing the Christian sacraments and 
worship and establishing whatever regulations were 
requisite for the newly-adopted faith, leaving the ma- 
chinery (if I may so speak) of government unchanged 
the rulers of synagogues, elders, and other officers 
(whether spiritual or ecclesiastical, or both), being al- 
ready provided in the existing institutions ; and it is 
likely that several of the earliest Christian churches did 
originate in this way — that is, that they were converted 
synagogues which became Christian churches as soon as 
the members, or the main part of the members, ac- 
knowledged Jesus as the Messiah.'' (See Kingdom of 
Christ, Essay 2.) This concession, with his own italics^ 
must bring this learned and eminent prelate precisely to 



THE ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTE. 93 

the logical position we take in rolling over the burden 
of proof upon those who say that the synagogue as well 
as the temple was '' destined to pass away'^ at the be- 
ginning of the Christian Church. This beginning was 
the "converted synagogue/' and converted by "intro- 
ducing the Christian sacraments and worship/' with 
regulations becoming the change, " leaving the ma- 
chinery of government unchanged/' 

The Acts of the Apostles, loud as words of the apos- 
tles could be, simply proceeded on the assumption that 
the Church of their childhood was the Church of all 
ages,- in which the seat of Moses should be occupied 
henceforth by the presiding elder, called bishop — one 
who would be heard and heeded when his works would 
correspond to his word, unlike his predecessors of the 
scribes and Pharisees. Accordingly, they went forth 
in missionary work to " ordain elders in every church " 
without the slightest intimation of this feature as a new 
one, but as one of course in perpetuating the Church of 
their fathers ; and when they passed beyond the terri- 
tory of converted synagogues to the Gentiles, and or- 
ganized the Church among converts, it must have 
been done after the same order, because no mention is 
made of the contrary, and because Jewish and Gentile 
converts at Antioch, who differed about circumcision, 
had no difference about church government, but agreed 
to send commissioners to Jerusalem " unto the apostles 
and elders about this question " on which they did differ. 
And, following " Paul and Barnabas and certain other 
of them " to this council assembled, we can see in the 
deliberation there the parity of ministers, the office of 
ruling elder and the judicatory composed of both con- 
ferring, debating and deciding — not to send down advice 



94 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

merely, but to promulge decrees that were "necessary 
things " to be obeyed ; and this obedience was to be the 
compliance of charity with a charitable injunction, for 
the most part, to abstain from the appearance of evil. 
In short, the old ecclesiastical institute is perpetuated 
in the Presbyterian system according to all that can be 
gleaned of apostolic measures and methods; and the more 
exact correspondence will appear in our subsequent dis- 
cussion of details respecting the congregation — members, 
officers, service, privilege and judicature — and we close 
this chapter with a r6sum6 of particulars in which it is 
now conceded by learned and eminent divines in the 
Church of England that the Christian churches of the 
first two centuries were modelled after the synagogue, 
and not after the temple : 

1. The titles of office were the same as the former, and 
not the latter. " Elders," " bishops," " deacons," were 
the names, never " priests.'' 

2. The places of worship were anywhere, and not 
confined to one place, either of exclusive offering or of 
superior sanctity. The place was a parish, and not a 
diocese for the elders or bishops of one church to super- 
intend. 

3. The exercises of divine service in the Christian 
churches corresponded to those of the synagogue, and 
not to those of the temple. 

4. No badges of office or peculiar vestments were 
worn by Christian ministers, who in this respect were 
like elders of the synagogue, and quite different from 
priests of the temple. 

5. 'No restriction of the ministry or eldership to a 
particular tribe or class of people, as in the temple, was 
ever applied to the candidacy for office, either in the 



THE ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTE. 95 

synagogue or in the Christian church. Any qualified 
person might officiate in the Jewish or the Christian 
church when called to do so in the due order. They 
were born to it at the temple. 

6. Neither w-as there exclusion either of youth or of 
old age at all fit for sacred service — not even of bodily 
defects or of infirmities of health — in the synagogue or 
the church. Quite different, this, from the temple ex- 
actness. 

7. No altar stood either in synagogue or in church. A 
desk raised up for the reader in the synagogue, and a 
similar arrangement for the preacher in the church, were 
all the fixtures of eminence in either assembly. But we 
know that in the temple an altar was the main feature — 
one for sacrifice, and another for incense. So prominent 
was this article in the sacredness that after the temple 
was no more the word " altar " continued as a metaphor 
of worship in the Christian vocabulary through all gen- 
erations. It seems, therefore, a confusion of sense in 
using this word now in both the literal and the meta- 
phorical meaning. Helping the senses by the visible 
image of an altar in the sanctuary is hardly congruous 
with help to the soul in spiritual oblation as it communes 
with Him " who hath by one offering for ever perfected 
them that are sanctified.'' 



CHAPTER IV. 
CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. 

WE may affirm of church government what a re- 
nowned President affirmed of government in the 
United States — that it is ^^of the people, by the peo- 
ple and for the people/^ only substituting for "people" 
in the first clause the " Christ " who has all the govern- 
ment " upon his shoulder." Isa. ix. 6. Of course, the 
principle of representation must have qualified that re- 
publican utterance just quoted, in the second phrase, "by 
the people," who do by themselves what they do by 
others. But the great body of the republic was first in 
the thought, and its representation second. So of the 
Church that is " built upon the foundation of the 
apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the 
chief corner-stone." An inspired book, faithful in- 
terpreters, and first and last a divine person, only can 
begin to collect the great suffi-agau congregation of 
God's people. Its polity, therefore, should begin with 
the study of its membership rather than of its ministry. 
"All baptized persons are members of the Church, are 
under its care and subject to its government and disci- 
pline ; and when they have arrived at the years of dis- 
cretion, they are bound to perform all the duties of 
church-members." Lately this formula, which had 
been satisfactory to the Presbyterian Church in past 



CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. 97 

generations, has been altered to these words: "All chil- 
dren, born within the pale of the visible Church, are 
members of the Church, are to be baptized, are under 
the care of the Church, and subject to its government 
and discipline," etc. — that is, they are not made members 
by the ordinance of baptism, because it is their birthright 
to receive it and all the privileges to which it is the formal 
initiation, just as their advancing maturity in life will 
evince a fitness to enjoy this and that particular privilege 
when recognized by constituted authority in the Church. 
" The pale," or enclosure, of this birthright must be wide 
as the whole visible Church, and this may be wide as 
loyalty itself to Him who has "the government upon his 
shoulder." Every form of visibility is loyal to Christ 
the Head which witnesses for him in giving his word to 
the people, the scriptures of the Old and New Testa- 
ment, to be heard and read in the exercise of private 
judgment, enforcing the behests of our Lord therein 
contained, with such discipline as will tend to purity 
of doctrine and life, communion with each other, and 
the extension of his kingdom over all the earth. 

The membership of infants in this great common- 
wealth is primary and indefeasible, though not con- 
ceded by certain branches that refuse baptism to babies, 
and only quasi conceded by others that do admit them 
to this covenant seal, and yet qualify as merely "con- 
structive" the census which enrolls them as denizens of 
the kingdom on earth, although their names be multi- 
tndinously written as fully members in the Church of 
the first-born in heaven. Even civil government care- 
fully reckons little children as members of the state 
and fully entitled to the protection of any right accruing 
at their birth. The craving of our nature itself is to 



98 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

have a record of births in the Church, and to signalize 
with offices of religion the first epoch of each human 
personality. '^ The mother of us alP' should not be 
recreant to the roll and seal of heirship at the crisis 
Avhen a mother's care and close attention are to be en- 
gaged as is never possible again through the whole 
career of life. 

In the Old-Testament Church the membership of in- 
fants and recognition of it in a sacrament are manifest 
and incontestable, and we readily find a warrant for the 
same in the New-Testament dispensation of a perpetual 
Church. An abundant warrant indeed it is, argued 
from the identity of the Church under both dispensa- 
tions, the clear recognition under each of a religious 
character in children, the great maxim of all economies 
that a privilege once granted will continue to be of right 
and force until revoked by the authority which gave it, 
from the absence of all complaint on the part of believ- 
ing Jews respecting any curtailment of ancient privilege 
in this respect, which would have been made and answered 
on the inspired records if so dear a privilege under the 
old economy had to be surrendered to any innovation of 
the new. It is argued, also, from the express declara- 
tion of Peter on the day of Pentecost — '^ The promise is 
unto you and to your children," etc. — which by no tor- 
ture of exegesis can be made to drop the principle of repre- 
sentation in parents, and from the examples of household 
baptism given in the New Testament, making it probable 
in the highest degree that little children were included 
in the administration as capable of " receiving the Holy 
Ghost," as well as their parents, who were young enough 
to be engaged in the activities of meridian life. These 
general indications cannot be more than hinted here in 



CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. 99 

order to justify the comprehension of parents and 
children together in the congregation of a visible 
church. 

To a people so constituted, born and baptized six 
main privileges belong — the sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper, household baptism, the right of suffrage in 
choosing spiritual officers, the exercise of gifts in sub- 
jection to decency and order, the nurture and admonition 
of discipline, and the missionary consecration devolved 
by the great commission of our ascending Lord. For 
the enjoyment of such privileges there is a fitting pre- 
requisite to each one to be recognized by proper authority. 
There is no participation as matter of course, unchecked 
and uugoverned, in the house and kingdom of Christ. 
No birthright liberty in any kind of government may 
venture on privilege without reins of control to speed 
or estop the exercise of right in any individual. The 
man who is born in our land has, of course, the rights 
of a citizen, and yet these rights may be fenced off with 
special qualification to be manifest or deponed without 
the slightest invasion of birthright. He must pay his 
tax before he can vote at the polls. He must reach a 
certain maturity of age before he can dispose of his 
property. He must qualify in the value of what he 
possesses before he is accepted as a surety for his friend. 
So, and much more, because they are sacred and critical, 
must it be with all the privileges pertaining to the com- 
monwealth of true religion. 

Let us consider now the first great privilege of a 
baptized member — to commune at the Lord's Supper. 
Our Directory for Worship (chap, ix.) requires the quali- 
fication of " sufficient knowledge to discern the Lord's 
body," ^^ the years of discretion," and all other qualifi- 



100 CmiECH GOVERNMENT. 

cations of the candidate, to be " left to the elders as 
judges," who are to examine him as to ^' knowledge and 
piety." Such is the summary of qualification to be re- 
quired for this '^sealing ordinance." And yet simple 
and practicable as all this may seem, no question has 
agitated Puritan and Presbyterian churches in the past 
more grievously, if not divisively, than the terras of ad- 
mission to the Lord^s Table. Only the truly converted 
who are born again may worthily partake. The reality 
of this prerequisite, however, cannot be ascertained by 
the judicial penetration even of spiritual men, for the 
secret of true conversion escapes the observation of 
men, and often even the consciousness of him who has 
it. Besides, the work of grace in the hearts of men is 
indefinitely diversified. While the main characteristics 
of a saving change must be alike in the rise and progress 
of a new life, the time, the occasion, the ways and the 
means of the new birth are as various in experience as 
the faces of men to the eye of observation. While the 
common lineaments of human visage are the same in 
contour, no two are exactly alike in shades of expression 
and minute configuration. Perhaps the diversities of 
religious experience are greater than these, because God 
only knows the transition from death to life in any in- 
dividual and keeps the secret in his own book of life, 
while the ordinary features of such a change will be 
manifest as an epistle from him to be seen and read of 
all men. 

This manifestation to spiritual men is what they call 
a credible profession. We take middle ground between 
two opposite extremes on this important question. The 
officer who acts in admitting a member to full com- 
munion is not to be guided by the measure of his own 



CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. 101 

personal experience, nor even by suspicions of genuine- 
ness in the candidate's avowal. If the form of expres- 
sion be faultless and the narration of experience be 
probable on its face, in accord with terms of com- 
munion expressed in the Bible, and if no inconsistency 
of moral conduct be observed to make the Session doubt 
sincerity in a candidate, the judgment of charity is 
that the profession is credible and private surmises 
should be held in abeyance. Mistake in the case will 
not spoil but mix the visible Church at present — an 
evil which our insight may abate, but cannot prevent. 
There is more difficulty at the other extreme. If 
we are not required to be inwardly and individually 
sure, why should we inquire at all respecting the con- 
version of an applicant who comes without a visible 
spot on his moral character, and with intelligent appre- 
hension of the responsibilities assumed in full com- 
munion at the sacrament? why search his heart with 
catechetical inquisition to find out the work of the 
Spirit there? If the Church is mixed, as it must be 
wherever it is visible in this world, and we know that 
the overruling goodness and wisdom of God will meli- 
orate the world with such a mixture, why should we 
not consent in form, as well as in fact, to this constitu- 
tion, and ask no other terms of communion than ade- 
quate intelligence and a good moral character? Ques- 
tions like these divide opinion among the best of men 
to this day. Calvin differed from Zwingli and Luther; 
American Presbyterians differ generally from the Pres- 
byterians of Europe ; Jonathan Edwards differed from 
his predecessor at Northampton, the pious Stoddard, 
and on that account was driven from a pastoral charge 
where Pentecostal ' eflPusion had honored his ministry. 



102 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

Let us, therefore, consider in brief a subject of so much 
practical importance. 

Is a good moral character, along with competent 
knowledge and sincere desire, sufficient qualification for 
admission to the eucharist, or should we insist on more 
evidence in the fruits of genuine ^' piety '^ and examine 
a candidate, as he is required to examine himself, 
" whether he be in the faith ^' as it works by love, 
purifies the heart and overcomes the world ? We 
affirm, in answer to this latter query, assuming, of 
course, that the sacrament is not a converting ordinance 
to the worthy partaker himself, though it may be to the 
spectator who looks upon it as the "visible Word." To 
the believing receiver it is a sign and seal of what he 
has already in possession, and it is the quality of his 
title to such possession that we look up in searching the 
record of his lips and life. 

(1) Our examination of an applicant must aim at the 
same thing that his own examination of himself does in 
the direction of the Church invisible — according to the 
apostolic injunction, to see whether he be in the faith 
and Jesus Christ be formed within him by faith, or 
whether his approach is but the venture of " reprobate" 
hypocrisy. Here precisely we have use for that re- 
markable text, "The Lord added to the church daily 
such as should be saved." It blends the visible and 
the invisible so closely tosrether in ecclesia that they are 
scarcely distinguishable from each other at all by any 
translation that is just. The clause may be rendered simply 
" the saved," or that "are being saved," or that " will be 
saved," or that "should be saved," as in our Authorized 
Version, but in any and every way it means that accession 
to the visible Church is in pursuit of true salvation surely 



CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. 103 

realized in the Church in visible. The scope of this passage 
for such a proof must be that all coucerned in adding 
converts to the church must look for good evidence of 
saving faith at the entrance. Of course the Anglican 
predominance in the late New-Testament revision, which 
strikes out of the passage any mention of ^Hhe Church'' 
at all in rendering it, would deprive us of our illustra- 
tion here. The revisers blot ixx^5y<T/« (the "Cliurch"), 
found in the original, with the phrase " to them," and 
allege in the margin that " ecclesia " means " together" ! 
The sacred technicality must be reduced to a skeleton 
of etymology, and the very first historical use of ixxXrjaia 
in the New Testament has been suppressed — apparently 
in the interest of that ecclesiasticism which hides the 
obvious identification of the new with the old ecclesia 
and prefers the temple hierarchy to the Christian 
church for a model.* The distinction of visible and 
invisible in the word '^ecclesia" does not make two 
churches, but one, as much as body and soul are one 
person and scaffold and walls are one erection. We are 
to admit to full communion members of the visible on 
the fair presumption that they are already of the in- 
visible Church, and this presumption is authorized on 
proper examination of their " knowledge and piety." 

(2) The same is argued from the true nature of a 
sacrament, which is to signify and seal to us what is 
already possessed by the soul, and not to impart any- 
thing more than the increase of strength and comfort in 
the enjoyment of what has been antecedently imparted. 
Otherwise, we pervert the sacrament. If a man is not 
converted in order to partake of the blessings conveyed 
in the ordinance, he must partake of them in order to 
* See the Commentary of Dr. Addison Alexander, Acts ii. 47. 



104 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

be convertjcd. If the Supper be not tlie chiltlren^s bread 
only as they hunger and thirst for righteousness, it is 
bread for those who eat in order to be hungry and drink 
in order to be thirsty, and is therefore witliout signifi- 
cancy and is abused. 

(3) The duty of open profession implies it. One who 
is savingly converted and feels the power of redeeming 
grace and mercy will publish what God has done for 
his soul. The first and best occasion for this will be his 
entrance into full communion with God's people and 
their Saviour at the sacrament of the Supper. It is the 
test of loyalty and obedience, and we can stand it only 
when we ^^ obey from the heart " and confess from the 
heart : ^^ With the heart man believeth unto righteous- 
ness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salva- 
tion.'' But if the heart be not inquired for at all at the 
entrance, if the man of faith and the man of morality 
are alike received, without attempting discrimination, on 
the part of those who have the keys, where else can the 
opportunity be found for signal attestation of divine 
mercy in the work of saving change? 

(4) A credible profession of saving faith is required, 
also, to distingush holiness from morality, while it in- 
cludes it before the world. If the Church will not 
endeavor to separate the precious from the vile, in kind 
as well as degree, by requiring evidence of regeneration 
at her gates, she ceases to stand before man as a witness 
for God, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar 
people. She obliterates the line between morality and 
grace. If the w^orld can see that the level of her own 
decency and moral sincerity is high enough for admis- 
sion to the Church, it will be apt to conclude it is safe 
enough to enter heaven also. 



CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. 105 

(5) The ordiiuuice of discipline imports the same 
economy in its principles — that credible evidence of re- 
generation should be had of such as come to the privilege 
of full communion. Discipline were not needed in the 
Church distinctively if its aim be not to secure a higher 
sanctificatiou than what satisfies the world. When the 
offender is to be restored, it must be on confession of 
sincere repentance. But repentance ^' is a saving grace '' 
manifesting fruits meet for repentance, and therefore evi- 
dence of true regeneration, and to say that returning 
children are to be passed on stricter terms than are re- 
quired of strangers at the gate is incongruity in man- 
aging the house of Christ. 

(6) Acts of the Apostles bind us to require more than 
good character and adequate intelligence. The first three 
thousand on the day of Pentecost were accepted on the 
declaration of repentance felt in the heart, and, receiving 
the word, were baptized for the remission of sins, and, 
receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, " continued in the 
apostles' doctrine and fellowship." When the eunuch 
desired baptism of Philip, the latter said, "If thou 
believest with all thine heart thou mayest.'' When the 
apostles wrote letters, they sent them with greeting to 
the "saints,'' which they received also from the "saints." 
These were admonished in terms which accredited the 
genuineness of their faith, and their faults and follies were 
censured in expressions of surprise and sorrow, evincing 
that the presumption of true godliness belonged to their 
profession. If no evidence of real conversion had been 
required at the entrance, the style of apostolic salutation 
is chargeable as hollow courtesy and empty compliment. 

These are some arguments for the current usage of 
American Presbyterians in searching for more than sin- 



106 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

cerity, knowledge and good morals on the part of candi- 
dates for admission to sealing ordinances, but we must 
not overlook another side or slight the objections which 
good and great men have urged in demurrer to the usage, 
though complying with it in form. 

(1) They ask why, when we maintain the min- 
gled condition of membership in the visible Church — 
recognized, though regretted, and abundantly signified as 
a necessary fact in the parables uttered by our Lord him- 
self — we do not suffer this mixture with our free consent, 
but seek to make the Church what we know she never 
can become — perfectly pure on earth. It is enough to 
answer that facts are not the rule of duty in our faith- 
fulness. We know that individual believers can never 
attain to perfection in the present life, but shall we there- 
fore not attempt it in following the example of Christ 
with our best endeavor ? Because the marksman at his 
distance cannot drive the centre of his aim, shall he not 
try it? Because evil is overruled for good in the gov- 
ernment of God, shall we any the less resist the evil 
and avoid it to the whole extent of our discernment? 
Credible evidence of a perfect change in the heart of a 
neophyte is what charity itself requires, although " we 
know in part, and prophesy in part," only, in the judg- 
ment of his worthiness. 

(2) It is objected that the Israelites of old were called 
God's people and admitted to the passover at times when 
no judgment of charity could accredit their genuine piety. 
This objection assumes too much for the objector himself. 
Those ancient church-members at such times were with- 
out the moral sincerity, blameless life and competent in- 
telligence which the objector demands for indispensable 
terms of admission. Besides, there was a double mixture 



CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. 107 

in those theocratic times of church-membership : Church 
and State united, as well as the true and the seeming, 
under the seal of circumcision. The passover, also, 
was a national celebration as well as sacrament of the 
Church. This external relation alone, so constituted, 
would make them distinct among the nations as people 
of God when such denomination was by no means the 
same as " saints " in the parlance of New-Testament 
times. 

Yet there was much discrimination made of old in the 
qualification of worthy participants : the presumptuous 
sinner, the stranger, the apostate, the ceremonially un- 
clean, were excluded. The hypocrite was challenged 
severely : " When ye come to appear before me, who 
hath required this at your hands, to tread my courts ?'' 
" I hate, I despise, your feast-days, and I will not smell 
in your solemn assemblies." When God was about to 
choose a man ^' after his own heart," and the sons of 
Jesse were " sanctified and called to the sacrifice," the 
memorable words of direction were given to Samuel not 
to look on the countenance or anything specious exter- 
nally, for ^' man looketh on the outward appearance, but 
the Lord looketh on the heart." Admitting that less of 
heart-religion was required for the ancient passover, is 
not God represented as finding fault with that economy, 
and is not the new mentioned as a time of "reforma- 
tion"? This reformation is described abundantly in the 
prophecies of old as consisting in the greater purity of 
New-Testament membership, such as Isa. iv. 3 : "And 
it shall come to pass that he that is left in Zion, and he 
that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even 
every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem." 

(3) The objection from the case of Judas Iscariot may 



108 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

be disposed of in the same way substantially. Whether 
he did actually partake of the Lord's Supper at the 
original institution is left in doubt by all the ^' Har- 
monies," seeing three of the evangelists apparently on 
one side and one on the other, the order of time being 
so incidental in sacred narratives, and the certainty of 
our conclusion on such a point being so unimportant. 
It is certain that Judas had not the moral sincerity and 
the knowledge to " discern the Lord's body " as it is ex- 
hibited in the sacrament, both of which the objector de- 
mands for terms of communion. And it is entirely 
certain that our Lord was not deceived in the man 
at all : " Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of 
you hath a devil ?" ^' Now are ye clean, but not all ;" 
^' One of you shall betray me ;" '^ That thou doest do 
quickly." However inexplicable the case of Judas in 
regard to fellowship, motives, remorse, etc., one lesson is 
clear to us, and quite sufficient ecclesiastically, and that is 
that our Lord, officiating first as an example to his min- 
istering servants through all future time in condescension 
to our weakness and liability to err in judging men, laid 
aside as it were for the moment his prerogative to search 
and know the hearts of men and took them at what they 
professed to be, leaving in this a signal monition that his 
ministers should keep their own surmises in abeyance 
and suffer the credible in a religious profession to share 
the confidence of charity. 

(4) Another objection is brought from the baptism of 
infants. If we receive them to a sealing ordinance with- 
out the possibility of know^ing whether they have shared 
a new birth of the soul, why not receive adults of good 
moral character without seeking after any evidence of 
regeneration besides? It is enough to answer that from 



CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. 109 

a total impossibility in one case we may not argne against 
a proximate possibility in another which is different. 
Each appointment of God must be observed according 
to its own nature. AVhen he sanctions the application 
of a seal to one class of persons who are incapable of 
actual faith, it does not follow that he sanctions the 
seal as applied to those who are capable without fairly 
testing their faith according to his word. We search 
only for signs of true conversion, whether these are 
seen in the hopeful interpretation of a promise — " To 
you and to your children '' — or in the credibility of an 
honest avowal. Now, the faith of a godly parent in 
trusting a promise for the salvation of his seed will 
warrant a presumption fairly as the ingenuous narrative 
of adult experience will effect in our administration of 
the seals. In fact, thus far, the aggregate of admissions 
to full communion will show that the hope of the Church 
is not disappointed in gathering into the fold a covenanted 
seed sprinkled in infancy as much as in even the crowded 
accession of professing proselytes. 

(5) The difficulty of fixing the standard is another 
point of objection. No two believers have had pre- 
cisely the same history of a saving change ; therefore, 
no two or three elders can unite properly in judgment, 
as they must naturally bring to it the process of their 
own individual experience. This would be plausible, 
and perhaps unanswerable, if any other kind of standard 
could be fixed and certain in its application. There 
are more imperfections of knowledge, more shades of 
character and more degrees of moral sincerity reckoned 
than all the varieties of spiritual experience expressed 
by the candidates. A germ of genuine godliness will 
always be more easily ascertained than competency of 



110 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

knowledge, morality and sincere desire. Diversified 
endlessly in every condition of life, it has, nevertheless, 
an identity which few spiritual judges can fail to dis- 
cern or the range of charitable circumspection fail to 
recognize; and its far greater value, when fairly accred- 
ited, will justify the preference of " piety ^^ as our safe- 
guard, even if its manifestations were equally vague and 
dubious, for it ensures every other test which can be 
applied, while, reciprocally, no intelligence nor integrity 
nor earnestness of soul combined could ensure it or 
secure its welcome into the confederacy of faithful 
Christians. 

These indications of thought on a subject which lies 
near the foundation of the visible Church on earth 
should balance our minds and guard us against enthu- 
siasm on the one hand and indifference on the other — 
from the Anabaptist figment of a perfectly holy Church 
on the one hand and the papal arrogance of infallible 
visibility on the other. Moderation here should be 
known to all men, and would do much in this life to 
make the Church a " pillar and ground of truth " and 
her conduct "without spot or wrinkle or any such 
thing." 



1 



CHAPTER V. 

CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH (CONTINUED). 

A SECOND main privilege of baptized members 
may be called household baptism in the family 
institute as a distinct bundle of care in the bosom of 
the visible Church. Prior in form to the enlargement 
of Abram's name, as we see afterward in his life, 
when the promise was extended and he was made 
"father of many nations" and the ecclesiastical cove- 
nant was made for all people and all time, this original 
germ, though unsealed at first, should be considered as 
the ecclesiastical unit and be continued in the practice 
of household baptism through all generations of New- 
Testament time. The apostle Peter preached it at the 
opening of this new dispensation with peculiar em- 
phasis to Jews and Gentiles both. The former, whose 
characteristic jealousy for the ''family apart" would 
meet the gospel of enlargement with murmur at the loss 
of this privilege under the Old-Testament covenant, he 
reassured that the family parcel must remain to in- 
herit the promise made to parents for them and their 
children, and that with a new form of the seal and its 
enlargement of application also : " Repent and be bap- 
tized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, 
for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift 
of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and 
to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as 

111 



112 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

many as the Lord our God shall call." Acts ii. 38, 39. 
Even admitting that "the promise" here mentioned was 
not distinctively that made to Abraham and his seed, 
but the general effusion of the Spirit witnessed at Pen- 
tecost and predicted '^ by the prophet Joel," we read in 
that prophecy (Joel ii. 28, 29) a detail of the household 
corporeity as sharing the fulfilment: "Your sons and 
your daughters," " Your old men " and " your young 
men," "The servants and the handmaids." 

When we turn to the Gentiles, whither the same 
apostle was constrained by concurrent visions to go 
and spread the gospel (Acts x.), we see the household 
of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, the first-fruits of the 
Gentile world. And there it was that the great measure 
of extension for the ordinance of baptism was so dis- 
tinctly uttered by the apostle : " Can any man forbid 
water, that these should not be baptized, which have 
received the Holy Ghost as well as we?" The logic 
of this interrogatory is enough to bind up the f^imily 
again as a unit of the ecclesia while the ministration 
of the Spirit endures. To be born again, "not of 
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
man, but of God," unites a living soul at any age to 
the Church invisible ; and to be born at all where means 
of grace are had unites a living soul at any age, sus- 
ceptible as all ages are of regeneration by the Holy 
Ghost, to the visible Church with formal initiation by 
a sacrament of God's appointment. And means of 
grace are most efficacious when uniting both nativities 
in one effectual calling. 

Believing parents lay hold of two covenants in the 
family relation, one conditional, the other unconditional. 
One promises a prospered succession for time on the 



CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. 113 

presumption that father and sou will be respectively 
faithful in duty ; the other promises a perfect salvation 
to the believer personally on the presumption that, how- 
ever disappointed he may be in the lapse of a family 
covenant, he may repose on the covenant of grace, 
whose conditions cannot fail, as they are undertaken 
by a covenant God himself. For illustration we may 
cite the family records of a remote antiquity when this 
hallowed integer was revealed so much as the seed-plot 
of both Church and State. When " Eli the priest," 
for laxity in family government and for reproving too 
daintily the profane and disreputable conduct of his 
sons, had the promise revoked in his old age and the 
household covenant broken before his eyes, a man of 
God explained the tenor of this covenant as he pro- 
ceeded to announce the doom of its infraction : " The 
Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house 
and the house of thy father, should walk before me for 
ev^er ; but now the Lord saith. Be it far from me ; for 
them that honor me, I will honor, and they that despise 
me shall be lightly esteemed." On the other hand, 
among " the last words of David " we read the consola- 
tion of his own soul in the covenant of grace along 
with sad allusion to the degeneracy of his sons : '^ Al- 
though my house be not so with God; yet he hath 
made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all 
things and sure : for this is all my salvation, and all 
my desire, although he make it not to grow." 2 Sam. 
xxiii. 5. In these two delineations of covenant security 
we see what a privilege is the family tie — double benefit 
and double blessing — for the life that now is and that 
which is to come, when both covenants are kept, and 
infinite resources of hope, contentment and solace to the 



114 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

faithful parent or child when the conditional one fails 
in calamities or unfaithful collapse. 

The next thing to be noticed on this subject is the 
extent of the household itself, or the proper limit to 
which we can adjust this portion of the apparent body 
of Christ. May the head of the house present for bap- 
tism more than his own children and grandchildren? 
May he become sponsor, by the seal of this ordinance, 
for the orphans of kinsfolk cast upon his tutelage and 
care in their infancy or childhood, for minors during 
the tenderness of youth committed to his wardship or ap- 
prenticed by civil contract in childhood and to be trained 
to work under his direction at handicraft or agriculture ? 
May missionaries present the little ones of heathen 
parentage over whom they have entire control in home 
and school ? May deacons to whom the care of the poor 
is committed present the little children left in orphanage 
on their hands ? To these questions our great analogy 
of the Old-Testament Church, as organized at first in 
the family of Abraham, our New-Testament facts, our 
traditions of usage from historical churches of Protestant 
faith, our constitutional principles of government by rep- 
resentation, and the acts of our General Assembly on ap- 
peal, reference, review and control, authorize an affirma- 
tive answer. 

The sponsor's fitting prerequisite qualification is an- 
other question of importance in discussing the privilege 
of household baptism. The Directory enjoins that 
"those who are to be admitted to sealing ordinances, 
shall be examined as to their knowleilge and piety.'' 
Baptism is obviously one of these sealing ordinances, 
and what is required of the unbaptized adult — " satis- 
faction with respect to knowledge and piety" — should 



CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. 116 

be required of the baptized adult in representing the 
infant or child when making the profession for it wiiich 
baptism signifies. He should make a credible profession 
of true piety as well as of proper knowlege, and either one 
or both professing parents, when giving such satisfaction, 
may be admitted to this privilege without having exer- 
cised any other public privilege in the church. Privi- 
leges to which we are formally admitted in baptism are 
all on a level, to be distinctly enjoyed according to fit- 
ness and opportunity. To make one the condition of 
another is neither congruous nor equitable, yet a prevail- 
ing practice of requiring an actual participation of the 
Lord's Supper previously by one or both of the parents 
is advocated on the plea of keeping sacred this initial 
ordinance, as if the Supper itself should be initial and 
made to supersede the special examination for baptism 
also, as required in the constitution. More than this 
unauthorized inversion, it is derogatory to the sealing 
ordinance of the eucharist when we make it a test in 
any way whatever — a term for holding office in the 
State, or sealing the solemnity of marriage, or admit- 
ting a baptized member to the endeared solemnity of 
having his child acknowledged a member of the visible 
Church. While it seems to make this baptism more 
unapproachably sacred it really tends to profanation of 
the Lord's Supper, when, as Dr. Samuel Miller said, we 
make it a whip to drive the parents into full communion 
at the sacraments ; for many a man would venture to 
partake unworthily rather than fail to have his children 
baptized. Most of all, it is unscriptural. The facts of 
household baptism in sacred history preclude the possi- 
bility of the sponsor's having previously partaken of the 
Lord's Supper. Surely at the house of Cornelius no rite 



116 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

of Christianity and no preparation but the baptism of the 
Holy Ghost conditioned the baptism with water of its 
inmates. And so of the two household baptisms at 
Philippi — that of Lydia, and that of the " keeper of 
the prison ;" it was done " he and all his straightway/' 
Acts. xvi. "I baptized also the house of Stephanas," 
said the apostle Paul in one place (1 Cor. i. 16), and in 
another he says of Stephanas and his house that they 
were "the first-fruits of Achaia,'' intimating plainly 
that no church existed at Corinth to commune with 
previously to their baptism. 1 Cor. xvi. 15. 

But, although the practice of requiring one, at least, 
of the baptized members who seek the baptism of their 
child to be a full communicant is without either consti- 
tutional or scriptural warrant, yet the same " knowledge 
and piety " as that required for admission to the Lord's 
Supper should be ascertained as the prerequisite for this 
privilege of household baptism. It is expressly required 
of an unbaptized adult seeking the ordinance for himself, 
and, as representative of the infant, having been baptized 
himself, he should therefore in this capacity pledge the 
prerequisite for his child by his own confession. Yet 
the examination of such a candidate should have a 
specialty of direction corresponding to the nature of the 
privilege itself. Instead of specially searching after 
evidence of personal regeneration in the narrative of 
an applicant's experience, the object of examination in 
this case will be the credit of " knowledge and piety" in 
the moral and religious character of a baptized parent, 
capacity for training up his child in the nurture and 
admonition of our Lord, earnestness and regularity in 
attending on the means of grace, and that probity of 
character in the world, and conscientious conduct which 



CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. 117 

ean safely be trusted in keeping promises, paying vows 
and redeeming pledges. 

This requirement of qualification for household bap- 
tism would be no embarrassment at all if theory in our 
constitution were fairly carried out in practice of our 
government. All baptized members *' are under the 
care of the Church, and subject to its government and 
discipline ;" yet our church government over this class 
of members has been put to shame in the practice of 
civil government under which we live. From the rod 
of parental discipline, even before maturity of age, youth 
passes over to the civil judiciary, which never waits to 
be sought after before dispensing correction by its vigi- 
lant officers to all that are amenable to its jurisdiction. 
And why should our Church judiciary, in her eldership, 
overlook both native and baptized members of their 
community until they are puzzled to know who they 
are and whether they have any rights in court or com- 
petency to receive and enjoy them ? To indulge this in- 
difference or excuse the neglect or evade the reproach of 
having so large a nondescript ratio of members loose 
from the Church, and satirized by Anabaptisra for a 
century past, quite a variety of scheming in polity has 
been attempted. 

In 1859 it was proposed to the General Assembly 
(O. S.) by an important committee, appointed two years 
before, to dispense with formal process in discipline 
against baptized members and confine it altogether to 
the offences of " professed " members. Though such 
had been the general usage for a generation and more, 
although but one vote in a committee of nine had been 
reported as the minority, the sense of that body was 
staggered by the proposal to touch the old formula in 



118 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

any way ; and after a brief and animated discussion the 
report was recommitted and required to be made to the 
next Assembly. At the next the discussion was resumed 
and protracted, with strong development of opposition 
to that solitary change on which the debate was engrossed, 
and again the report was recommitted and the committee 
enlarged with a single eye to the restoration precisely of 
the original words in the book. This was done by the 
enlarged committee in 1862 meeting at Pittsburg, and was 
unanimously adopted by the General Assembly of 1863. 
The same proceeding occurred twenty years later, when 
another committee of revision appointed by the reunited 
General Assembly, after animated and prolonged dis- 
cussion, reported back the old formula, which was ap- 
proved again in the General Assembly, and finally 
adopted by a majority of the Presbyteries, voting 
distinctly. It is beyond question that it is still the 
settled mind of the Church that baptized members of 
the Church are " subject to her government and disci- 
pline/' just as communicating members are. 

Indeed, the distinction of " professed '' membei's for 
the latter is inconsistent with the standards of all his- 
torical churches, and with the Scriptures also. Profession 
is identified with baptism, and not with the Lord's Sup- 
per distinctively. ^'To be baptized is to make pro- 
fession,'' was the maxim of the Reformed when the 
Heidelberg Catechism was made. One important step 
toward the practical working of our old covenant 
theory has been taken of late by the revised Book of 
Discipline, which requires "the names of the baptized 
children of a parent seeking admission to another church 
to be included in the certificate of dismission." This 
right direction must lead to more distinct recognition 



CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. 119 

of their ecclesiastical status than before and invite the 
people everywhere to make this recognition more com- 
plete. The government of the Church, being also 
paternal in its nature, substituting may for must in 
view of difficulties and the "need of patience," though 
persistent and persevering to the end, would greatly 
facilitate subjection to its own authority wherever it is 
duly studied and known. Plausible objections to the 
practice of our theory are seen to be figments of imag- 
ination as we advance to real consistency. It used to 
be said that until the baptized member enters into full 
communion at the Lord's Supper he should be regarded 
as a minor, even to the age of fourscore. But minors, 
according to all analogy, are precisely the class of per- 
sons who need discipline administered in the most pal- 
pable form : " He that spareth his rod, hateth his son : 
but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." This 
proverb fairly expresses the nature of discipline as an 
ordinance of benignity and affection when faithfully 
exercised in the family or in the church. It is emphat- 
ically a privilege to which one is admitted in pursuing 
his birthright as it is legitimately ordered, and the 
church is chargeable with wrong deprivation to with- 
hold it on account of unwillingness in the subject to 
receive it. 

Another plausible avoidance commonly made is to 
allege a distinction of degrees, taking discipline in its 
widest meaning as teaching, training, admonition, re- 
proof, rebuke — anything for the merely baptized but 
actual process in administration. Yet government of 
any kind must be more than stoppage at these lower 
degrees. The ultimate penalty and, of course, the 
ulterior process in view are required to make the milder 



120 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

antecedents eifectual. It is when the child knows a rod 
for delinquency is at the end of the lesson that he gives 
heed and application to the beginning. It is when the 
citizen knows the coercion of power is at the end of 
legal requirement, with cost, that he is prompt to ren- 
der a due at the first call of lawful demand. So it 
must be in the whole sphere of moral and religious 
obligation. Something beyond the present intimation 
of duty or dissuasion from sin, more potent than tuition 
and more palpable than words without action, must be 
the stringency which will bind together and enforce all 
prior procedures of disciplinary exercise. And the 
same correlatively with the faithfulness of those en- 
trusted with the exercise officially. As the civil gov- 
ernment of the country is propelled to watchfulness 
and care in common-school education and virtuous en- 
lightenment of the people by the necessity of a direful 
infliction of punishment at last, so the governors of the 
church will be quickened and circumspect in the pas- 
toral care of baptized members, young and old, when 
they are made duly aware that actual process on charges 
must be resorted to for purging scandal away from 
the baptismal font as well as from the communion- 
table. 

The great objection, however, instantly and uni- 
versally made is that it is impracticable, it cannot be 
done. It is hard enough to govern communicating 
members with adequate discipline, and baptized mem- 
bers would spurn the claim and despise the process. It 
may succeed for a purpose in the spiritual despotism of 
popery, but never in the franchise of radical freedom to 
which we are born in Protestant churches. The force 
and impatience with which this objection is made should 



CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. 121 

be met with the utmost calmness and charity in making 
an answer. We should learn what we can from popery 
itself, for wise policy may be taught us by adversaries. 
The compactness and conservation of that system, not- 
withstanding its corruption and slavery, are the wonder 
of history. We may venture the averment here that 
such perpetuation is mainly due to the asserted govern- 
ment over baptized generations, from age to age, making 
the body homogeneous, and therefore compact in propor- 
tion. And in this thing Romanism itself may appeal to 
the Scriptures. Here we find no distinction of church- 
members into two classes — the baptized and the full- 
communicants. We have many other distinctions made 
in Holy Writ among our members — the weak and the 
strong, the poor and the rich, the young and the old, 
the ignorant and the learned, the ruled and the rulers, 
the Gentiles and the Jews — but never, in the status of 
membership, such as the partially and the fully initiated, 
the professing and the non-professing baptized. This 
were to reproduce in Christianity the old heathen aris- 
tocracy of ethics : ^' Precepts for some, and counsels for 
others.'' 

This objection also implies an essential difference of 
kind in what is different only in degree in the exercise 
of discipline. We may teach, admonish, rebuke, but 
not suspend or excommunicate the baptized member 
from the privileges which pertain to him at his lower 
stage of communion. But this must be arbitrary and 
without reason, for all church censure consists in the 
authoritative application of divine words to offences. 
The slightest reproof and the sternest excision are just 
the same in their nature. The word of God is an 
excellent oil in reproof at the first, and a sharp sword 



122 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

in executing judgment at the last ; but through all mix- 
ture of metaphor it is one and the same kind of dis- 
cipline, and the only kind that any church is author- 
ized to use. If, then, it is by the word of God we are 
taught and warned aud reproved and suspended and 
excommunicated in the various forms of ministering 
discipline, why should we halt in this progress at the 
first or the second or the third, and not proceed to the 
last, in dealing wdth baptized members? Here, again, 
there is made by our modern practice an arbitrary dis- 
tinction which is nowhere indicated in Holy Scripture. 
It has been alleged that process of discipline, as a dis- 
tinct ordinance, is intended for the offences of full-com- 
municants only, as in the judgment of charity they are 
presumably regenerate, and is therefore not to be used 
as a converting ordinance, like preaching the word. 
But surely the w^ord of God is a converting ordinance 
in any form of its application to the souls of men ; and 
when specially applied in the form of adjudication, its 
pungency is peculiar in producing as an instrument the 
two great graces of true conversion, faith and repent- 
ance. And this product is always sought for by the 
word alike among erring communicants and unregen- 
erate baptized. James v. 19, 20. 

To extenuate the common delinquency of practice and 
make it level with our constitutional theory of the cove- 
nant, some reduce the doctrine itself, and qualify the 
membership of baptized persons with a vague construc- 
tion, as "incipient,'' "auspicious," "promising," quasi, 
or something undefinable and less than full identity. 
But the status of baptized members, being cardinal in 
our system, should be explicit and never befogged with 
words without knowledge. And, if it be not untena- 



CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. 123 

ble, it must be redoubtable. It must be in position to 
answer the challenge : What are your baptized children, 
when you say they are members of the church, and yet 
speak of your desire to have them join the church — 
that they are subject to its authority and yet never 
claimed by the exercise of authority, covenanted by 
birthright and by formal solemnity of initiation and 
yet allowed to be so much surrendered to the world 
that the very fact of their baptism is often merely a 
doubtful tradition? They are either professed mem- 
bers of the church or they are not members at all, for 
profession is made in baptism, as has been said already 
— the adult for himself, and the parent for his child — 
and a birthright neglected by the natural sponsor will 
not be neglected in a proper form of government of the 
church for want of the seal, but will be vindicated by 
the censure of that parent and confirmed in the subse- 
quent profession of his offspring. 

But we must not omit in this connection to notice a 
covert Anabaptism in another objection often urged — ^that 
such policy can be only forceful and destructive. Its 
pressure would either constrain the unconverted to enter 
into full communion unworthily or drive them away 
from the congregation altogether — would certainly make 
the visible Church more mixed than ever and make 
the non-believing recusant more disobedient than ever. 
Just two things already submitted in our premises are 
unfairly and totally ignored by the objector: 1. The 
credible evidence of true conversion to be required of 
every candidate for full communion — that special pre- 
requisite which no form of government could force and 
no want of government could hinder; and 2. The 
solemn fact that everywhere and always, after the first 



124 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

sowing of tares, the mixture must be let alone till the 
final harvest. No spontaneity of profession or enthusi- 
asm of novitiate or figment of imagination or scrupu- 
losity of keys or austerity of puritan will stop accession 
of the impure, however much we try to keep the visible 
kingdom of heaven here "without spot, or wrinkle, or 
any such thing/' Indeed, government itself is a predi- 
cate of imperfection, and would be without a province 
if a mingled condition of the true and the seeming to- 
gether were not subjected in every department. The 
best judgment of charity on ample observation is that 
the body of full communicants is composed of many 
converted and some unconverted, and the body of bap- 
tized members at maturity is composed of many uncon- 
verted and some converted. In gross they are the very 
same; in proportion they are different. But all good 
government Avill contemplate the gross in its procedures. 
Consistency is a jewel of slow formation. Logically, 
it is nimble enough to go downward with headlong 
haste from evil premises to woi-se conclusion; but in 
lateral development among the analogies it hesitates 
long in arranging adequately the truth and the right. 
Morally, it has been working slowly through long his- 
torical ages to make out the just balancing of power in 
governments of men. Advancing and retrograding all 
the while, " clear shining after the rain '^ is not yet. 
Ecclesiastically, though projected before the foundation 
of the world, it is not yet finished, and "the prince 
of this world,'' though "judged " and " cast out " long 
since, retains consistency of his own sort as the last 
fortress of his kingdom, from which the inconsistencies 
of churches, church-members and church government 
are continually charged with deplorable mischief. "We 



CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. 125 

must work and study to be consistent, and this means 
we must begin together and stand together. " The 
many " is an apostolic requirement for the right exer- 
cise of government and discipline, and that we be ^' in 
a readiness to revenge all disobedience^' when the obedi- 
ence of good membership ^' is fulfilled/' 

Thus far the consistency of our scheme has been 
attempted sporadically. Here and there a brave minis- 
ter has ventured the trial more in avowal than in actual 
practice, because he was alone among his elders, who 
thought him visionary and the old covenant an innova- 
tion when squared out and pressed in totality. We 
must be patient and prudent. It is better to wait, as 
the apostle Paul did and advised, for the preparation 
of a common sentiment to sustain the rectitude of such 
endeavor. But this waiting should not be delay on 
purpose. Our civil government, which has borrowed 
so much from our covenanting forefathers, would lend 
us a perfect analogy in this extension of consistency. 
Every decade search is made for children born in the 
land, and more minute interrogatories are made about ages 
and household residents, occupations, industries, educa- 
tion, than any Presbyterian Sessions ever think of pro- 
pounding. Schools of rudiment and schools of reform, 
orphans' courts and orphan asylums, married relations 
and parental relations, administration of bequests and 
devises — in short, everything of a moral, economic, 
social and sanitary nature — is matter of judicious in- 
quiry at the basis of well-regulated government in the 
world. Such is Christian civilization, however, and the 
complete separation between Church and State should 
not leave the Church apathetic and the State ungrateful. 
Demitting to secular oversight almost everything sacred 



126 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

but the fellowship of adults, the Church has surrendered 
enough without allowing the Bible to be turned out of 
school, and prayer to be silenced in halls of higher 
learning, and ^' emulations '' instead of conscience at 
college to become the factor of scholarship in chief, and 
remain the spur of unhallowed ambition to the end of 
life. 

Surely, it is time for the Church to reclaim her alien- 
ated province and assume her authority over all that are 
born in her pale. We should hasten to rival the pontifi- 
cate of Rome itself in writing to all our own parochial 
bishops, " The wisdom of our forefathers and the very 
foundations of the State are ruined by the destructive 
error of those who would have children brought up 
without religious education." Reformed Christianity 
must govern the education of her children at secular 
schools, and still more emphatically at Sunday-schools, 
which are now called so often nurseries for the Church. 
Sponsorial parents must not be allowed to substitute for 
themselves a sponsorial machinery unwatched to relieve 
their own hands of what they have covenanted to do in 
the family ; and when they try to do their duty in both 
ways, the authorities of the Church must see to it that 
even a partial delegation of this momentous interest 
must not be made in a choice of teachers and superin- 
tendents without the sanction of an eldership. If both 
teachers and taught alike in parish schools and Sunday- 
schools are not made amenable to the governing authority 
in the Church, to recognize, revere and obey it, this power 
will be impotent thereafter in the control of all classes, 
baptized merely or communicating also. Let the true 
doctrine of the covenant be fairly asserted. Let children 
be made to know and feel from the earliest dawn of in- 



CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. 127 

telligence that they are members of the Church and are to 
meet the respoDsibilities of this relation through all their 
lives, and that as soon as they come to act for themselves 
they come to be subject to ecclesiastical as well as to civil 
authority. Let the Church work up with faithfulness 
and patience to every principle embodied in her stand- 
ards, and there can be no failure in her legitimate gov- 
ernment. "Many'^ will buttress the building when the 
foundation is laid consistently. Contumacy and defiance 
may withstand the process when it comes to citation and 
trial, but such notoriety will not always intimidate "the 
generation of the righteous:'^ "Their seed shall be known 
among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people ; 
and all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they 
are the seed which the Lord hath blessed." 

The third main privilege of the people is to vote 
in the election of spiritual officers. This elective fran- 
chise in the Church differs from that in the State funda- 
mentally in two particulars: the people do not create the 
offices which they are privileged to fill by their voting, 
either directly or indirectly, but accept these in the con- 
stitution God has given by his revelation. And the 
persons also to be chosen are sent to them by his calling 
without anterior convention or primary nomination of 
men. In most other respects the suffrages are alike. 
The equitable right in both rests on the principles of 
representation and production. The utmost freedom 
must be guaranteed to the people in choosing persons 
to represent them in government, because the repre- 
sentative is to do for them what they wish him to do ; 
and beyond this, unlike the mere delegate or deputy, he 
may serve them best by going against their wishes ac- 
cording to his own light and the dictates of his own 



128 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

conscieDce. Guiding and ruling are essentially included 
in true representation. So also in economy. The non- 
producing officers who live at the altar and at any func- 
tional occupation of life apart from the ordinary toil and 
industries of the people should receive appointment from 
the hands of those who support them with stipend or 
taxes. 

The type of all this difference and resemblance we 
have in the Hebrew commonwealth as it was organized 
at first. The selection of Levi among the tribes of 
Jacob was the sovereign designation of God only, but 
the people of the whole nation besides were called before 
the tabernacle to accept and adopt this tribe as the conse- 
crated order in place of the first-born of every family 
apart, signifying this by "the whole assembly ^^ of other 
tribes putting their hands upon the heads of the Levites. 
Thus even the typical priesthood of the ancient Church 
became representatives of the people and had cities pro- 
vided for homes, and other sustenance of great variety 
apportioned and allotted by all Israel. The special 
qualification, therefore, to exercise this privilege is con- 
tribution of one's substance to support the ordinances 
of divine appointment and the ministers of religion, who 
seem to be called of God to live of the gospel as long as 
they live in the flesh. In voting for a pastor the Form 
of Government (cliap. xv. sec. 4) distinctly expresses this 
qualification thus : " In this election no person shall be 
entitled to vote, who refuses to submit to the censures of 
the Church rightly administered ; or who does not con- 
tribute his just proportion according to his own engage- 
ments, or the rules of that congregation, to all its necessary 
expenses." 

The negative form of expression by our book has 



CONSTITUEyCY OF THE CHURCH. 129 

occivsioned embarrassment and some variety of opinion 
among the churches. The fair interpretation must 
assume that all baptized persons, being members of 
the cluirch, formally initiated, are admitted to the en- 
joyment of all privileges for which they manifest the 
proper prerequisite respectively. It is also to be assumed 
that they are consistently subjected to the government 
and discipline of the church. To exercise the privilege 
of voting, therefore, it nuist be clear that they are duly 
submissive to discipline and duly prompt to discharge 
their obligation to support the church by the contribu- 
tion of their means. Delinquency in either of these par- 
ticulars will debar the exercise of suifrage. The dis- 
junctive " or," therefore, in the text does not imply two 
different classes of voters — those who are loyal in their 
obedience and those who pay well, even though not 
members of the church at all. This latitude, which 
is given in charters of civil corporation too often, is for- 
bidden by the first principles of ecclesiastical organiza- 
tion, which make voting the peculiar privilege of church- 
members. This privilege is a gift from the Head of the 
Church, and to take the gift because one pays money to 
the church is to buy it simoniacally. The person who 
votes legitimately must have been " freeborn " if not en- 
franchised by a public profession — " born within the pale 
of the visible Church " at the very least of qualification. 
All citizens born in the land have at maturity of age a 
right to vote for a governor if they have paid their tax 
for the poll, but the foreigner who does pay tax is not 
on that account merely admitted to the polls. The re- 
moval of one disqualifi(;ation where either of two nega- 
tions would preclude a voter does not make an affirma- 
tive of the other negation, and much less does it allow 



130 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

another class to be enfranchised by merely paying money 
without regard to the prime qualification of being " free- 
born " in the sense of Church-nativity. 

Whilst our polity has been strained exceedingly in 
giving latitude of suffrage to the choice of a pastor be- 
cause he sustains an important relation to all that hear 
the gospel at his lips, converted and unconverted, in the 
church and out of it, attending the congregation before 
him, it has been decided by the General Assembly that 
only full communicants should vote for ruling elders, on 
the presumption that such members are especially amen- 
able to the Session, and therefore peculiarly interested in 
the choice of rulers. But, as we have seen already, this 
restriction is unreasonable in view of tlie unquestionable 
meaning of our constitution, which expressly subjects all 
members baptized to the government and discipline of 
every particular church. The Assembly, therefore, wisely 
decided the voting of merely baptized members, as well 
as that of communicants, will not invalidate the election 
of elders. And the distinctive principles of ecclesiastical 
voting have been faithfully developed in giving to all 
members the privilege, without distinction of sex or age, 
who are mature enough to come under the immediate 
government of the Session and are not disqualified by 
insubordination or the refusal of proper dues. 

The right of suffrage rises to its highest dignity and 
power when it responds to the great commission cast 
upon the bosom of the Church by her ascending Saviour. 
Matt, xxviii. 18-20. Going and sending are identified 
in the force of this commission, which evidently made 
the Church a missionary society from the beginning. 
Her votes and treasures, her testimony and work, her 
power and glory, are all involved in the scope of this 



CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. 131 

behest. And the radical question confronts us here, and 
ought to be settled here in discussing the suffragan prov- 
ince which belongs to all church-members : Where was 
the commission lodged, and with whom deposited for all 
generations — with the eleven apostles as officers in their 
own right only, or as representatives of ^' the peculiar 
people" and the "royal priesthood " to be gathered and 
constituted by their instrumentality? If the former, the 
eleven personally, without reference to a constituency 
already existing and to be increased indefinitely by the 
gospel preached to all nations, we are held to a stringent 
necessity of making out a regular and unbroken trans- 
mission to individual officers in succession to keep the 
commission from being lost, and on this precarious suc- 
cession the whole Church must be built till the end of 
time. History, both inspired and uninspired, has utterly 
failed to trace with certainty any such succession, and 
presumptive imagination argues it with lone assevera- 
tion which is unequalled in effrontery. Yet this view 
has been taken partially by some who believe in a rela- 
tive and not an absolute necessity of succession, holding, 
also, that it can be traced, as Irenseus taught, in the 
presbyters, who have always had a line unbroken some- 
where. But the transmission which depends at all on a 
supplement of history is always embarrassed with diffi- 
culty and dispute. The true channel of succession is 
faithfulness and ability — faithfulness to the record and 
ability in teaching it : " The things thou hast heard of 
me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to 
faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." 
2 Tim. ii. 2. 

We return, therefore, to the alternative persuasion— 
that the last commission from our Lord was given to 



132 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

the Church as a body of believers, to be their mission 
by their own elected representatives till the end of time. 
Such were the original twelve chosen by our Lord him- 
self at the crisis of transition from the Old Testament to 
the New. Quickly as the juncture was passed an election 
was held to fill the vacancy made by the apostasy of 
Judas. Peter, as some believe, was too fast in making 
the proposal which seems to have anticipated the calling 
of Paul, but his action significantly meant a conscious- 
ness that the last commission reposed on the body of the 
believing people. Matthias was elected by the assembly 
of one hundred and twenty disciples to the office of 
apostle ; and when they went forth to ordain elders in 
every city and every church, it was in the way of voting 
for these officers. Acts xiv. 23. The very word itself 
translated ^^ ordained'' or "appointed'' means literally 
stretching out the hand — a gesture of the people in the 
act of voting. Derivative uses of the word here men- 
tioned as the act of the apostles do not preclude the 
suggestion that, as in the election of deacons the popular 
vote preceded the formal ordination, so it was here, the 
apostles ordaining those who were previously voted for 
by the people. The great commission devolved upon 
the nascent Church by her exalted Head our Lord is 
like the constitution of a State in our parlance, resting 
on the bosom of the people as an organic law, creating 
offices, defining duties and prerogatives, excluding the 
people from an indiscriminate exercise of functions, and 
yet remaining their own instrument of order in such a 
sense that the authority it confers may be revoked for 
malversation by judicatories which the same instrument 
creates alike for the protection and the restraint of 
the people. 



CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. 133 

(1) This popular aspect of governmont, from the 
begiuDiug of the Christian Church, will be justified 
by the most minute examination of records made at the 
supreme culmination of her system in the resurrection of 
Jesus. ^^ Five hundred brethren at once" were present 
at the bestowment of the commission in the mountain 
of Galilee where he had arranged with the "eleven" to 
meet his disciples. 1 Cor. xv. 6. An exact collation of 
the different appearances of our Lord between the resur- 
rection and the ascension will shut us up to this conclu- 
sion. And if, as some have thought, this large concourse 
and last command were had at Jerusalem, it is the same 
significance. Indeed, "the eleven" are promiscuously 
noticed throughout this interval as included with "dis- 
ciples," " brethren," etc. : " Unto the eleven and all the 
rest ;" " The eleven gathered together, and them that 
were with them." These are familiar expressions to 
indicate the following of a risen Redeemer as indefi- 
nitely more than eleven until the five hundred at once 
received the final behest. These first-called and original 
witnesses of our Lord charged in the presence of other 
disciples, as legates of the ascending Master, " Go " as 
representatives of the people, who in all their genera- 
tions afterward would, as no extraordinary messengers 
of one generation could, enjoy the faithfulness of that 
promise : " Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end 
of the world." 

(2) This view accords with the facts of Pentecostal in- 
auguration. Power from on high was waited for by the 
body of disciples, and not by the apostles alone. They 
were all with one accord in one place when the Holy 
Ghost came down to distribute gifts for the effectual 
working out of the great commission: "All began to 



134 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utter- 
ance/' All that had "seen Christ Jesus the Lord" 
began to testify what they had seen, and to teach and 
preach as they were severally empowered to do in pur- 
suance of that last charge. There was no formal invest- 
ment of others with office to indicate an exclusive com- 
mission to " the eleven." The commission took imme- 
diate effect on every man who received the gift from 
God without "the laying on of hands" in mediate 
ordination. Thus Ananias went forth to preach and to 
baptize. Thus men of Cyprus and Cyrene proceeded 
to Antioch with the gospel. Thus Apollos, without the 
hands of any apostle, evangelist or presbyter, preached 
at Alexandria, Ephesus and Corinth. As it had been 
for ages before that the people of every synagogue 
listened to the man who came along with the gift and 
demonstration of a prophet, so now it would be that 
every congregation would listen to the teaching of any 
man Avho came along with the power of a Pentecostal 
endowment. The mantle of commission fell and rested 
on all that were "endued with power from on high." 
The apostles and the people were alike on that high 
level of participation. 

(3) The relation of ordinary ministers to the people 
of the Church at large purports the same level in every 
age. They belong to the whole Church as servants, 
apostle and presbyter alike : " Ourselves your servants 
for Jesus' sake ;" " All things are yours, whether Paul, 
or Apollos, or Cephas, all are yours." But charters of 
title do not belong — exclusively, at least — to servants : 
heritage especially in all the laws of descent is the por- 
tion of children rather than of servants. It is the prin- 
cipal, and not the agent or the factor, who possesses abso- 



CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. 135 

lute title to the premises on which tlie servant is found. 
All the apostles who have written to us at all press 
the analogy too strongly to have had the sentiment of 
superiority in the franchise of preaching. 

(4) This view of the commission, that it rests with 
the constituency more than with the ministers or the 
rulers of the church who exercise it, was held in the first 
two centuries after the apostles. ^' All Christians/' said 
Tertullian, "are made priests of Christ; so that when 
these are gathered together they make a church, though 
they be all laymen. And where no clergymen are pre- 
sent laymen may baptize and celebrate the eucharist, 
the distinction between clergy and laity being only by 
the Church." Loose and radical as such expressions 
may appear, and peculiar to that old enthusiast, there 
Ls unquestionably indicated the fact that in the second 
century the people were competent to put forth preach- 
ers for themselves when it was considered necessary in 
privation or defection. 

(5) The same opinion was held by leaders of the 
great Reformation. '^ It hath been said,'' says Luther, 
** that the pope, the bishops, the priests and those who 
dwell in convents form the spiritual state, and that the 
princes, nobles, citizens and peasants form the secular 
state, or laity. This is a fine story indeed, but let no 
one be misled by it. All Christians belong to the spir- 
itual state, and there is no other difference among them 
than that of the functions they discharge. If any pious 
laymen were banished to a desert, and, having no regu- 
larly-constituted priest among them, were to agree to 
choose to that office one of their own number, married 
or unmarried, this man would be as truly a priest as if 
he had been consecrated by all the bishops in the world. 



136 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

Cyprian was chosen very mnch in this way. Hence 
it follows that laity and priests, princes and bishops, 
have in reality nothing to distinguish them but their 
functions. They all belong to the same state, but all 
have not the same work to perform." 

(6) Reformation of the Church is made without em- 
barrassment on this platform of ultimate right and 
power in the people who compose it. Reserved to the 
body of the faithful, it avails much to prevent corrup- 
tion and restore the integrity of truth and mannei's 
when short of total apostasy. No sacrament of orders 
nor mystic impartation from man to man of something 
which one party has and another has not, no drivelling 
touch of robed officials on the forehead or the palm, 
was needed in transmitting to future ages that august 
commission Avhich a risen Redeemer laid on the bosom 
of hundreds at Jerusalem or on the mountain of Gali- 
lee, or both, it may have been, with the emphasis of his 
own sublime repetition. Such is the vital importance 
of suffrage in the people and its peculiar significance at 
the foundations of Christianity. 

The fourth immunity of church-members, or spe- 
cial privilege to which they are formally admitted in 
baptism, is the exercise of gifts according to the 
respective endowment by the Head of the Church : 
^' Unto every one of us is grace given, according to 
the measure of the gift of Christ." Ascension-gifts 
are still continued in the body of Christ, both visible 
and invisible, and these are not confined to those who 
are in office even by the calling of God and the vote of 
the people ; an endless variety may be found among the 
unofficial members themselves. And these are not to 
be repressed for want of office, but ratlier cherished and 



CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. VM 

stimulated by office-bearers — coiiditionecl on "decency 
and order " at all times and in every place. The spe- 
cial prerequisite here is subordination to constituted 
authority. Exercised in that private and social sphere 
which, instead of infringing upon the public functions 
of ministers and elders, supplies largely the lack of their 
service, and so upholds their hands and confirms their 
influence, these varied gifts of the people are of indis- 
pensable usefulness to the best welfare of the Church. 

Indeed, they have often cradled the Church, both in 
Europe and in America. A mother in Virginia, at the 
side of such a cradle, gave to the ministry Samuel Da- 
vies, whose gifts and eloquence won so much renown 
in both hemispheres before he was thirty-six years old, 
when he died. The General Assembly in Scotland, 
A. D. 1641, passed the following minute : "Our Assem- 
bly also commendeth godly conference at all occasional 
meetings ; or as God's providence may dispose, as the 
word of God commandeth ; provided none invade the 
pastor's office, to preach the word, who is not called 
thereunto, by God and his Church." This enactment, 
centuries old, describes the happy mean which Presby- 
terianism has held in all countries between the exclusive 
arrogance of a caste in prelacy and the radical confusion 
of a mere society in independency. We have never ex- 
perienced much practical difficulty on the subject of lay- 
preaching, while both these systems have found its just 
limits exceedingly hard to define. The following im- 
munities may not be denied to the people : 

1st. To search the Scriptures for themselves, with full 
warrant to believe that a prayerful and humble exercise 
of private judgment may attain to a saving knowledge 
of doctrine and duty by this means alone. The use of 



138 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

the Scriptures, with the right of private judgment, is 
really a grant made to all men who can read or hear 
them read beyond the boundaries of church-membership. 
The Bible is for the globe we inhabit, and its instinct of 
life eternal cannot be " bound '' nor kept from floating 
with its leaves for " the healing of the nations " wher- 
ever the winds of heaven may waft the commerce of the 
world. But, as it is to the visible Church the oracles of 
God have been committed in trust for preservation and 
promulgation, they are given with covenant promise and 
blessing to her baptized generations, without distinction 
of office, age or sex, to read and understand for them- 
selves individually. So sensitive is the freedom of this 
right in our system that the General Assembly has re- 
fused more than once the proposition to have an author- 
ized commentary on the Holy Scriptures, though teeming 
with interpreters capable and faithful enough for the task. 
The right of every member to read and understand for 
himself is founded — (1) On the divine command. Deut. 
vi. 6, 7 ; Ps. i. 2 ; John v. 39 ; Col. iii. 16 ; 2 Pet. i. 19, 
and other places too numerous to be cited. (2) Also on 
the name and nature of the word as a testament, it 
being a manifest injustice that any heir should not be 
allowed to read for himself the will of his own Father 
and Elder Brother. (3) On the nature of the Church 
as a free community, it being absurd that any meml>er 
of such community should be hindered from reading for 
himself its charter and constitution. (4) On the usage 
of the Church under all dispensations, including, of 
course, the concessions of Catholic Fathers themselves, 
Clement, Origen, Chrysostom, Basil, Cyprian, Augus- 
tine and Jerome — all, without exception, that shone with 
lustre in churchly consecration and had any learning 



CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. 139 

and piety and candor in the earlier ages of post-apostolic 
Christianity. 

There has never been objection to this popular use of 
Holy Scripture which the book itself does not answer 
with luminous and emphatic reply. Is it said the people 
are not capable of understanding it? The answer is, "It 
opens the eyes of the blind '^ and " makes wise the simple." 
Is it said that it is not sufficient to lead men to the knowl- 
edge of all truth and duty, in every age ? It answers, 
"The law of the Lord is perfect," "able to make men 
wise unto salvation," " profitable for doctrine, for re- 
proof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness ; 
that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly fur- 
nished to all good works." Is it said that an endless 
diversity and confusion must come if every man be 
authorized to interpret for himself? The Bible declares 
and makes it clear: " There is one Lord, one faith, one 
baptism." And all observation confirms it that among 
all evangelical men there is unity of faith in what saves 
and sanctifies the soul. 

2d. Unofficial members have the privilege of trying 
their teachers and rulers by the word of God in their 
hands. Hence the many injunctions to "take heed how 
ye hear," to "try the spirits" and "beware of false 
prophets :" " I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I 
say." Hence, also, the commendation of the Bereans 
for searching among themselves to know the truth of 
what was preached to them even in apostolic times of 
preaching. This right, like the first, is private ; each 
man judges for himself and not for others, nor for the 
Church at large, to sow dissension or disturb the peace. 
Our Saviour bade his followers hear the Pharisees because 
they sat in Moses' seat, and yet how pointedly did he 



140 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

bid them beware of the doctrine of the Pharisees ! So 
this right is not inconsistent with the proper authority 
of teachers, and dissenting members will be constrained 
to exercise charity and forbearance in the freest enjoy- 
ment of private opinions. 

3d. A third exercise of gift by all members of the 
Church is mutual exhortation, conference, social inter- 
change of speaking, on doctrine, duty and experience in 
the life of believers. In degenerate times of the Old- 
Testament ecclesia this kind of exercise among the faith- 
ful was commended with signal approbation of the Most 
High : " Then they that feared the Lord spake often one 
to another ; and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and 
a book of remembrance was written before him, for them 
that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name." 
Mai. iii. 7. This mutual interchange of speech is en- 
joined upon New-Testament believers in multiplied 
forms of urgency, as if the universal ''priesthood" now 
were universally commissioned to teach and preach. 
They are to exhort one another daily, to instruct the 
ignorant, to warn the unruly, to restore the fallen, to 
reconcile the variant, to comfort the feeble-minded and 
support the weak, — in short, like Eldad and Medad of 
old, to prophesy in the camp, and not the tabernacle, so 
usefully as to make faithful ministers exclaim, like Moses, 
" Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, 
and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them !" 
Yet, as " Joshua the son of Nun " would have had 
them forbidden, many wise and good men of this day 
are given to similar envy and repression. It is necessary, 
therefore, to ascertain the limits over which the exercised 
people would " invade the pastor's office." 

1. They are not to aifect the exercise of a gift which 



CONSTITUENCY OF THE CHURCH. 141 

they do not possess, and in attempting all duties of the 
heavenly calling, with the best of their abilities, they are 
not to wait on anything with constant effort for which, 
after fair experiment, they are manifestly unqualified. 

2. They are not to be sole judges of the gifts they 
possess. These must be recognized by the pastor, elders 
or people as good for edification, and failures should be 
so judged by others, when they indicate only diffidence 
or inexperience, as to encourage them to renewed efforts 
in the direction which they desire to pursue. This recog- 
nition by others may be tentative only, as in the training 
of persons for office in the Church. In the earlier ages 
of Christianity the bishop, or pastor of a particular 
church, would often call forth to preach a layman whom 
he deemed qualified. When Origen, of the third cen- 
tury, was approved in preaching to the people before 
his investment with orders by Alexander, bishop of 
Jerusalem, Demetrius, bishop of Alexandria, who was 
disaffected toward Origen, protested against it as irreg- 
ular and unlawful ; but Alexander, in his turn, cited a 
large number of facts in which laymen had been called 
to preach for an occasion by officers of the church when 
they were considered fit and capable enough, or when 
their capability was to be tested, or even when the 
regular minister was sick and the people would other- 
wise be destitute or disappointed (Bingham's Antiquities ^ 
book xiv. ch. 4). The teachers of that famous catechetical 
school at Alexandria — the first theological seminary in 
Christendom — were laymen, according to the statement 
of Jerome, through a long succession from Origen, and 
men were made doctors of divinity before they were 
licensed to preach. In the subsequent centuries the 
authorities of the Church had much more trouble with 



142 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

the monks about preaching without license than they 
have in this generation with theological students. • The 
whole force of a rising hierarchy was required to keep 
the monks in silence, especially as they soon became 
%viser than their teachers, and after ages of conflict, 
near the dawn of the great Reformation, the monks 
known as "preaching friars" triumphed, and became 
popularly called the " regular clergy,'^ while their 
adversaries in the contest were left to be called the 
"secular clergy." But the sentiment of the ancient 
Church against the preaching of religious drones re- 
vives in all the churches of the Reformation, leading 
us to notice a third limitation in the exercise of gifts, 
grounded on revelation and reason both. 

3. No unofficial member of the church is authorized 
to forsake his lawful calling in the world by which he 
provides things needful to the present life and supports 
his family, if he has any, for the sake of living by the 
exercise of his gifts in the Church, without being for- 
mally or informally appointed by officei*s representing 
the people in assemblies of adult membership. The 
progress of the Church and the many sides of her work 
may often require the common sense and business adap- 
tations of unofficial men to serve her in important in- 
terests, but let them be called by church authority, 
without obtrusive management in seeking place. 



CHAPTER VI. 

OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 

ALTHOUGH the Church of Christ, consisting of 
members more than orders and including officers 
of all sorts in the common right of suffrage with the 
membership, may choose their own teachers and rulers, 
this freedom of choice can range only within the nom- 
inations made by our Lord himself in the communica- 
tion of his grace to candidates, enduing them with 
capacity and the requisite " knowledge and piety." His 
calling is described in his word as both gift and ar- 
rangement. He " gave " and " hath set " " some in the 
Church," importing not only bestowal as a favor, but 
limitation of function to its proper sphere according to 
his own constitution. (See Eph. iv. 11; 1 Cor. xii. 28.) 
The people govern themselves by representation, but 
this representation must be governed by the word of 
God. Officers are representatives of God to men and 
of men to God — not as mediators or priests at all, but 
as ministers in dispensing the provisions of a covenant 
between God and man and interceding for man as they 
are enabled by the Holy Ghost. They come from the 
people, they serve the people, are like them in submis- 
sion, faith, hope, infirmity and fear, and yet there is no 
line of demarcation in the body of Christ so distinct 
as that between officers and members of the Christian 
Church. They are set apart with distinctive names, 

143 



144 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

have distinctive duties to perform, have special rewards 
of faithfulness to look for, and have peculiar claims on 
the esteem, obedience and support of the people. All 
attempts of spiritual despotism to rub out the distinc- 
tion by making the people nothing but ignorant slaves, 
and, on the other hand, of mystic enthusiasm to dis- 
pense with all ordained authority as a burden and 
hindrance, have either declined to utter apostasy or 
vanished away from the face of Christendom. 

The Reformed classification of New-Testament offi- 
cers into the two, extraordinary and ordinary, may be 
made more exact and complete in three, named the 
ministry of witnesses, the ministry of gifts and the 
ministry of orders. The first were transient ; the second, 
partly transient in the discontinuance of preternatural 
gifts; and the third, permanent. The first were person- 
ally called to be companions of Christ in the flesh, to 
be taught by his own life and qualified by the testimony 
of their own senses to be his witnesses to all men of 
what they had seen and heard of him. The second. 
were endowed by the Holy Ghost with extraordinary 
gifts in the Pentecostal effusion, and commissioned 
thereby, with little or no anterior tuition, to go forth 
on the same errand as the apostles — teaching, testifying, 
wonder-working, without formal ordination of man, the 
sovereignty of the Master not being committed in his 
word either to give or not to give such ministers again. 
The thii'd were the elders of the Old-Testament ecclesia, 
continued as they were in organization and worehip 
by the Spirit of the New-Testament dispensation, and 
wherever the synagogues continued without conversion 
churches were gathered anew by the ministries of recon- 
ciliation and modelled instantlv after the fashion of the 



OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 145 

old economy. (See, again, Acts ii. 47 ; also Tit. i. 5.) 
We have the origin of the reconstruction of every office 
but tliat of elder mentioned in New-Testament history, 
and yet no office is more familiarly and constantly 
noticed in the history. Even the apostles Peter and 
John take special care to inform us they are elders also 
when uttering the dictates of apostleship. These three 
classes of ministers were simultaneously in the field, 
therefore, each one including to a certain extent the 
other two, and all harmoniously sustaining and confirm- 
ing each other at the foundations of Christianity in the 
world. 

1. The Apostles, or Ministry of Witness. 

The manifestation of the Spirit, glorious at all times, 
in working with the Church on earth, signalized the 
Pentecostal epoch in three particulars : a profusion of 
gifts, and consequent display of functions, in greater 
variety than was ever vouchsafed before or since ; an 
elevation of the whole Church to the same degree of 
consecration by his power — old men and young men, 
sons and daughters, servants and handmaids — according 
to the prophecy of Joel (ii.) ; and an extraordinary mis- 
sion of witnesses, who were waiting for power from on 
high to spread the tidings of a finished redemption, 
deponing their special observation of the facts on which 
it is based and organizing the results of their persuasion 
with formal establishment of churches. These mis- 
sionaries our Lord himself had named apostles (Luke 
vi. 13) when he was particular in choosing twelve in 
number. 

The term "apostle," like other names for New-Testa- 
ment officers of Greek derivation is brought from com- 



146 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

mon to special use in a threefold transmutation of the 
word — the adjective sense, the appellative and the proper 
technical signification. We have this word in its simple 
adjective meaning in John xiii. 16 and Phil. ii. 25 — 
"one sent" in the former, "messenger" in the latter. 
We have the intermediate shade of appellative applica- 
tion in Acts xiv. 4, 14, where Barnabas and Paul, sent 
together on a mission by the church at Antioch, and by 
the Holy Ghost, are called "apostles" in the course of 
their errand. We have the same application to official 
brethren in general translated properly "messenger" in 
2 Cor. viii. 23, and in Heb. iii. 1 its application is made 
to Christ himself — "the Apostle and High Priest of 
our profession." The prevailing use of tlie word in 
Scripture is the third in its almost uniform application 
to the twelve, and so distinct as to confound the finesse 
of modern logic, which for a purpose to be noticed here- 
after mixes up all three senses in order to give a multi- 
tude of successors this great name of a small, unique, 
transcendent order who finished their special work in 
one generation and went to their reward. Although 
their works do follow them, these are in records and 
letters which are seldom read by priest-ridden people 
for themselves. Cathedral pomp displays their statues 
in the highest niches of man^s building, and the proud- 
est pinnacle and crest under heaven is called " apostolic ;" 
yet the visions of a new heaven and a new earth, and 
a "holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from 
God," reveal this high order only on the foundations, 
and " in them the names of the twelve apostles of the 
Lamb." The highest glory of man in the Church of 
God is to work at the base, and when our work is done 
to have it, like our life itself, "hid with Christ in God." 



OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 147 

The true apostolic missiou is read in the qualifications 
of this order expressly given us in the Scriptures. 

1. An apostle must have seen the Lord with bodily 
eye, and have been an eye-and-ear witness of what the 
gospel announces of fact in relation to Christ. Acts i. 
21, 22 ; xxii. 14, 15 ; 1 Cor. ix. 1 ; xv. 8 ; 1 John i. 3. 

2. He must have received his commission immedi- 
ately from the Lord, without the intervention of man. 
Luke vi. 13 ; Gal. i. 1. Even after the ascension of 
our Lord, at the election of Matthias the ordaining 
prayer was, " Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of 
all men, show whether of these two thou hast chosen." 
The intervention of Ananias in the case of Saul at 
Damascus was only to receive his sight and be filled 
with the Holy Ghost and hear : " The God of our 
fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his 
will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the 
voice of his mouth." 

3. He must have had infallible inspiration in apply- 
ing Old-Testament scripture and writing New-Testa- 
ment revelation, historical and doctrinal. Gal. i. 11, 12 ; 
Acts xxviii. 23 ; John xx. 22 ; 1 Thess. ii. 13. 

4. He must have had the power of working miracles. 
Acts ii. 43 ; 2 Cor. xii. 12. 

6. The power, also, of conferring on others miracu- 
lous gifts. Acts viii. 17 ; xix. 6. 

6. Universality of mission. Matt, xxviii. 19; 1 Cor. 
iv. 17; 2 Cor. xi. 28. 

7. Paramount authority among all the churches. 1 
Cor. vii. 17; John xx. 23; Luke xxii. 29, 30. 

These qualifications in the aggregate made an apostle, 
and not one of them might be wanting. Other minis- 
ters might share in one or more of these marvellous 



148 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

endowments, but only an apostle could unite them all. 
It has been alleged that the twelve were ^' named'' apos- 
tles by our Lord before these preternatural powers were 
conferred, and therefore it is not necessary to limit the 
designation to that original band, their subsequent en- 
dowments and this name at the first being obviously 
separable and distinct. It is enough to reply that, al- 
though they were styled "apostles" at the first pro- 
leptically and formally, they were not so called after- 
ward in the familiar companionship of Christ, but 
"disciples" usually, whether spoken of alone or in 
connection with other followers of the Master. More- 
over, they were not sent^ as the name intends, even as 
much as the seventy, who w^ere confined to Judea in 
their mission, but kept for the most part immediately 
with the great Teacher himself, though exercising mi- 
raculous power even then, as the seventy did, who her- 
alded the movements of Jesus and his school. It was 
only when actually endued with the promised power of 
the Holy Ghost — for which they tarried at Jerusalem — 
that they became apostles indeed and in every sense of 
the name. 

The assemblage of qualifications would indicate every 
important object and end of the office in laying the 
foundations of the Christian Church by their testimony 
for the whole world and for all time, but foundations 
had been laid before they came, and these were neither 
superseded nor altered. The consummate skill of apos- 
tolical organization consisted largely in recognizing what 
patriarchs and prophets had transmitted of forms, and in 
perpetuating these. The temple, the altars, the priest- 
hood, being typical shadows, must pass away when the 
substance of all had been realized gloriously. Duality 



OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 149 

of service at the sanctuaries must now be unity in the 
ecclesiastical institute. Our " synagogue/' as the apostle 
James called a particular Christian church, must unite 
before its congregation, reading, prayer, preaching, sing- 
ing, giving and sacrament in public service there, in- 
stead of dividing with tabernacle or temple any more a 
distinctive portion of appointed worship. But, on the 
other hand, the duality of covenants must remain as 
they were distinguished in the days of David, the con- 
ditional and the unconditional — that is, the family cove- 
nant and its enlargement ecclesiastically, conditioned on 
the individual faith and obedience of the participants in 
every generation, and the everlasting covenant of grace, 
conditioned on the vicarious and perfect obedience of 
Messiah himself. Beyond these elementary and seminal 
postulates, which the apostles explain so clearly in their 
Epistles, and the accompanying descent of eldership in 
officering the churches they planted, the errand of this 
highest order that ever appeared in the Christian ecclesia 
could not have been governmental construction or direc- 
tion, excepting as of secondary importance in aiding them 
to bear witness and in sustaining their testimony uncor- 
ruptible and perpetual. 

The great end of apostolic mission was witness-bear- 
ing, and almost every ordination with hands laid on 
occurred as incidental to the missionary drift of their 
powers and their lives. But the express declarations of 
Holy Scripture settle this point beyond a question, and 
he may run that readeth them. When the Lord was 
" risen indeed '^ and held his last interview with the 
eleven at Jerusalem a little before his ascension, and 
concisely reviewed the tenor of his teaching and the 
fulfilment of Scripture in the facts of his life and pas- 



150 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

sion, he declares to them, "And ye are witnesses of 
these things." Luke xxiv. 48. After the ascension, 
" when the day of Pentecost was fully come " and they 
were "endued with power from on high," "Peter, stand- 
ing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice" to recount, 
just as his Master had done at the closing interview, 
the fulfilment of prophecy in the history of Jesus, and 
exclaimed, " Whereof we all are witnesses." Not a word 
was uttered on that day of " power " about apostolic 
authority or paramount rule in their commission. Acts 
ii. 32. Afterward, when "many signs and wonders" 
attended this witness-bearing, wrought among the peo- 
ple " by the hands of the apostles," persisting in the 
same strains of Scripture to preach Christ in the face 
of violence and persecution, the same preacher pro- 
claimed, " And we are witnesses of these things ; and 
so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to 
them that obey him." Acts v. 32. Still not an utter- 
ance more about themselves or any claim to dominant 
power apart from their testimonies, even to organ- 
ize the churches. And onward in sacred history, 
when Cornelius the centurion sent for Peter, and the 
immense field of Gentile conversion was opened to the 
vision of this Jewish preacher, and the problem of 
organization for the Avhole world of a synagogue elder- 
ship to assimilate the globe in one ecclesia Avould have 
filled his imagination if his main errand had been to 
found a grand apostolic see on the face of the earth, — 
even then we have the old story from his lips only as a 
witness: "And we are witnesses of these things, which 
he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem, 
whom they slew and hanged on a tree : him God raised 
up the third day, and shewed him openly; not to all 



OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 151 

the people, but unto witnesses chosen of God, even to 
us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from 
the dead." Acts x. 41. 

It has been objected to this argument for testifying as 
the great end of the apostolic office, and power in it as 
altogether ministrative and subsidiary to this end, that 
Saul of Tarsus was made an apostle without having had 
the opportunity of personal intercourse with Christ, as 
the others had ; but this case, on the contrary, is the 
strongest corroboration of all. So necessary was it for an 
apostle to be qualified to bear witness by seeing and hear- 
ing with his own senses that a miracle must be wrought 
in order to supply him with what others had enjoyed 
in a natural way. So Ananias affirmed, '^ The God of 
our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know 
his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the 
voice of his mouth. For thou shalt be his witness unto 
all men of what thou hast seen and heard." Acts xxii. 
14, 15. When that gifted man was afterward in per- 
sonal danger of being " pulled in pieces " for his testi- 
mony, " the night following the Lord stood by him, and 
said. Be of good cheer, Paul : for as thou hast testified 
of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at 
Rome." Acts xxiii. 13. Did this revelation change at 
all the tenor of this witness for Christ ? Did the desti- 
nation to Rome wake ambition at all in the " free-born " 
citizen of that empire which governed the world, and 
that imperial city where power was everything, sur- 
charged with polities for all religions and all provinces 
alike, or turn his thoughts to fitting polity for the 
Church, intending to profit in that line by the con- 
signment to Rome? Not in the least. Before Agrippa 
it was all the same — the same story, the same testimony, 



152 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

the same avowal of this errand, until he sailed for Italy. 
Acts xxvi. 

Equality of the Apostles. 

Parity of rank on every plane of office revealed in 
the Bible is undoubtedly the order intended by our 
exalted Saviour and Head of the Church. The ador- 
able Trinity, in which the relations of Father, Son and 
Holy Ghost are set forth in familiar analogies to indi- 
cate a diversity of functions, are perfectly equal in power 
and glory, and it is not presumption to infer that equality 
among the most favored creatures of His Church would 
emanate with the " gifts for men " which our Lord re- 
ceived at his enthronement in heaven. The oneness of 
commission itself implies equality of rank among all 
that receive it. In reviewing, also, the assemblage of 
qualifications peculiar to the apostolic office the conclu- 
sion is inevitable that the apostles were equal to one an- 
other in dignity and in power. Like modern ministers 
holding the office of presbyter with perfect parity, some 
were more gifted or popular than others, while all were 
on a footing of perfect equality in official rank. 

But the world has been confounded with the most 
exorbitant claim ever put forth for unequal and un- 
bounded predominance of man over man, based upon 
alleged inequality in the band of apostles. Peter was 
made prince and the Church was built on him and by 
him as vicegerent for Christ, say the papists; and the 
spiritual despotism w^hich has darkened the annals of 
Christianity for more than twelve hundred years must 
be regarded as a fact of such fearful magnitude that we 
may not slight any pretence which seems to color with 
legitimacy a calamity so great. Unhappily, the student 



OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 153 

has more than the philosophy of history to demand of 
him a thorough consideration of the figments on which 
this colossal usurpation is built. The hasty presumption 
that popery can wax no more, that it is dead at heart 
and living only at the extremities, and that its arguments 
are so obviously absurd as to need no labor of polemics 
in providing an armory against them, has doomed many 
an educated minister to bitter disappointment in the field, 
and contributed not a little to the continuance, and even 
to the aggression, of mediaeval darkness on the light of 
civil and religious liberty. Let us patiently yet briefly 
contemplate this corner-stone of monarchy in church 
government — the primacy of Peter. 

It is admitted that Peter had an eminence among the 
apostles, or a kind of precedence accorded to any man 
of strong character among his equals. One of the fii^t 
to be called, and perhaps the oldest man of the number, 
ardent and impetuous in his nature, forward to speak and 
forward to act, and consequently admired by the multi- 
tude, so that we read of them bringing the sick and the 
palsied to the way on which he would pass that even his 
shadow might go over them, — on this account the early 
Fathers may have called him princeps apostolorum with- 
out meaning more than ancient scholars meant when they 
called Cicero j^rinceps oratorum or Virgil pr'inceps poe- 
tarum, or than we mean when w^e call Turretine, Owen 
or Edwards ''prince of theologians.'^ That nothing but 
a prominence of this kind was the superiority of Peter 
is argued — 

(1) From the very nature of the office: it had no 
degrees either of infallibility or of power. Each apostle 
had the inspiration, the personal knowledge, of Christ, the 
universality of mission and the paramount authority 



154 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

which made him a peer of the highest dignity conceiv- 
able in the Church — that of a consecrated witness and 
missionary of the cross. 

(2) Peter himself never claimed this alleged suprem- 
acy. His pretended successors have always announced 
their authority as a matter of duty, and no earthly 
potentates can be compared with them in the jealousy 
of emphasis with which their claims are proclaimed. 
The beginning of a dynasty must, of course, make 
proclamation and define its prerogatives with all pos- 
sible distinctness. As a good apostle he would magnify 
his office and secure heed to his instructions and orders by 
asserting the primacy conferred by the Master ; but he 
never hinted such a thing in any speech or sermon or 
letter on occasions which would have called it out if it 
existed. An apostle, a servant, an elder, he calls him- 
self on such occasions in those encyclical letters of his 
which are canonical and evidently reveal the utmost of 
his claims to rank and power in the Church. 

(3) Peter's precedence is not mentioned by any other 
apostle. If he had been invested with superior author- 
ity, and was too self-denying to make it known, certain- 
ly others faithful and inspired would have taken some 
occasion to indicate his primacy in loyal compliance 
with the will of the Master in promoting him to be 
the worshipful source of ecclesiastical power on earth. 
But there is not a hint of any such deference, and there 
is much written that is incompatible with even a chief 
respectability in the college of apostles. Paul wrote, "I 
suppose, I was not a whit behind the very chiefest 
of apostles," "James, Cephas and John, who seemed 
to be pillars.'' Surely, these expressions level Peter 
and disparage him when he subjoins (Gal. ii. 11), "But 



OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 165 

when Peter was come to Antioch. I withstood him to the 
face, because he was to be blamed." And he was blamed 
for " dissimulation/' as the sequel of this quotation 
shows. 

(4) The Master himself never mentioned the destined 
supremacy of Peter when he was particular to settle dis- 
putes about precedence among the disciples. On all 
occasions he rebuked ambition and any hope of pre- 
eminence in his kingdom (Matt. xx. 26; xxiii. 8); and 
no one was rebuked by him with such frequency and 
humiliating severity as was Peter : " Get thee behind 
me, Satan, thou art an offence to me ; for thou savorest 
not the things that be of God ; but the things that be of 
men.'' And how was the rash temper of this headlong 
disciple at fault when his Master exclaimed, " Put up 
thy sword into its place ; for all they that take the sword 
shall perish by the sword " ! The idea that such a fol- 
lower was to be exalted over " the disciple whom Jesus 
loved" and all other disciples is from this point of view 
in which he stood before his Lord preposterous. 

(5) No declaration of Scripture in any place confers 
this primacy. Incidental expressions besides the narra- 
tive are fatal to the claim, though silence alone would 
be repudiation. When catalogues of New-Testament 
gifts are given with minutest detail, apostles, as a co- 
equal band, are at the head, without distinction of any 
one. When parties arose among the people of Corinth, 
saying, " I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of 
Cephas, and I of Christ," the reprimand, "Is Christ 
divided?" pungently rebukes a factious adherence to 
one apostle more than to another as treason to Christ 
himself. The rock on which the monarchy of Peter is 
builded was viewed in the sublime visions of John, that 



156 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

saw it through all the magnifying mists of intervening 
history as only one of twelve foundations which had 
the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb inscribed. 
Rev. xxi. 14. 

(6) Miscellaneous facts are even yet more fatal to the 
claim. Peter fell during the arraignment of his Master 
in a manner of superlative atrocity and perpetual shame, 
denying him openly and profanely just after the keys 
had been given and he had protested unchangeable 
fidelity. The gates of hell prevailed against him at 
the first encounter and trial of his infallibility. At 
the election of Matthias he made a speech defining the 
proper qualifications of a candidate without the slightest 
dictation of authority in the appointment. The suf- 
frages of the assembly and their invocation to the Head 
himself for direction show conclusively that neither 
Peter nor the people imagined a fountain of ecclesiasti- 
cal powder on earth could be in him or in all the eleven 
together. Again, at the election of deacons (Acts vi.), 
he does not figure individually at all. The twelve 
called the multitude together ; the twelve laid on their 
hands alike in the ordination, and then alike gave 
themselves to prayer and to preaching. 

Peter and John were sent together (Acts viii.) to in- 
spect the work of Philip and establish the converts 
made by his preaching. Equals may be sent by equals 
in the way of delegation, but for a prince to be sent by 
subjects, and in a commission of entire equality with 
one of them, is incongruous and improbable. 

At the council in Jerusalem (Acts xv.) James pre- 
sided in the presence of Peter. The latter made the 
first address, but Barnabas and Paul also addressed the 
assembly, and it is recorded with emphasis that the 



OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 157 

whole multitude kept silence in order to hear them. 
James spoke last, summing up the opinions of the 
council in his definitive sentence — a fact which no 
explanation can recpncile with the uniform arrogance 
of Peter's pretended successors at Rome, popes or 
legates. 

Again, two other apostles have eminence alleged in 
Scripture before which that of Peter is pale. How 
patent is that of Paul in the volume of sacred history 
and all Christian tradition as author, scholar, logician, 
missionary and martyr! And John, the beloved dis- 
ciple, who could lean on the bosom of the Saviour and 
ask him questions Avliich no other disciple would ven- 
ture to propose — who, though he fled with the others 
in a panic at the betrayal and apprehension of Jesus, 
would stand near the cross to invite the agonizing Christ 
to fix an eye on him for sympathy and commit to his 
care the tenderest earthly one, his mother ! Mary was 
not confided to the guardianship of Peter. John sur- 
vived all the other apostles, and lived longest to guide 
and establish the Church with forming hand. Thus we 
might easily put up rival claims for almost any of the 
band if we did not think it impious to disturb the 
parity which our Lord ordained. 

With all this presumption against primacy in Peter 
so fairly made out in collating sacred records, we are 
met by one passage in the memorable colloquy of our 
Lord with Peter (Matt. xvi. 18) — a passage with which 
millions of the Christian name are made familiar with- 
out being allowed to read the Bible anywhere for them- 
selves, and, being so detached, it is made plausible by a 
crafty exegesis : " And I say also unto thee. That thou 
art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church ; 



158 CHURCH aOVERNMENT. 

and the gates of hdl shall not prevail against it." In 
the original two words of similar form {[lezpo^ and 
Ttirpa) are used for antithetical force in . the play of 
words, or the rhetorical figure called paronomasia. In- 
stead of "Peter" and '^rock" meaning the same person 
or thing, there is the very opposite construction — antith- 
esis between the two persons in this dialogue. One is 
Peter the apostle ; the other is Christ himself. UiTpo^ 
('^ Peter ") signifies a piece of rock or stone or fragment 
broken off, but izirpa (" rock ") means the solid body of 
imbedded rock out of which stones are hewn or sepul- 
chres carved, or in which caverns are made. And when 
we look for the uses of the demonstrative pronoun, rating 
("this") in the conversations of our Lord, it always 
means himself, not any other : " Destroy this temple 
and in three days, I will raise it up." John ii. 19. No 
human being throughout the Scriptures is called a rock ; 
all inspiration reveals the Messiah alone as the Rock on 
which the Church is built. (See 1 Cor. iii. 11 ; 1 Pet. 
ii. 4, 5.) This interpretation was that of Augustine, 
Francis Turretine, and J. Addison Alexander, whose 
masterly exposition of Matt. xvi. should be studied 
with care as a model of exegesis. 

Akin to this fair interpretation is that which pre- 
vailed among the Reformers to a considerable extent. 
The word Tiizpa (" rock ") may refer to the confession 
made in the context preceding ver. 16 : " Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God." There is an inter- 
vening verse (1 7) : " And Jesus answered and said unto 
him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona; for flesh and 
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father 
which is in heaven." This " Petrine confession," as 
Lange and others allege, is the " rock " on which the 



OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 159 

Church is built. The ra:!>r7/('^ this'') would, then, have 
to reach over an intervening antecedent to one more 
remote ; but, though this often occurs, it is by exegetical 
necessity, of which there is none here, when Christ 
himself is the Rock. 

If we take the sense given by Tertullian and Am- 
brose — that Peter himself is the rock intended here — 
and reduce the beautiful paronomasia to mere allitera- 
tion, then we must^ask, Why did not our Lord say 
"thee" at once — "on thee will I build my Church"? 
It was not characteristic of his sacred lips to utter the 
jingle of alliteration. Yet those Fathers did not dream 
of the monstrous interpretation which puts Peter in the 
place of Christ. It was only through the agency of 
Peter in building the Church, as predicted in the word 
oixodoju^ffco ("I will build"), that these early Fathers 
considered his importance at the foundation of the Chris- 
tian Church, and, accordingly, the striking fulfilment came 
when Peter was the first to preach, both to Jews and to 
Gentiles, under the power of Pentecostal charisms. The 
wonderful accessions by means of his preaching and that 
of others at the beginning are mentioned as additions to a 
Church already existing, called by the Spirit of inspira- 
tion the Church. Acts ii. 47. The gloss of popery 
would blot out the heritage of Hebrew Christianity and 
make the transition from Old Testament to New a 
stoppage on the Church line over which nothing can 
pass but a castaway hierarchy. 

Cardinals of renown — Bellarmine and Wiseman — 
have pressed another plea for the primacy of Peter from 
the formula of his restoration to the grade of ordinary 
apostleship and the confidence of others after the shame- 
ful inconstancy with which he had denied his Lord and 



160 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

Master. (See John xxi. 15, 16, where, on Peter's re- 
peated answer to the solemn question, " Lovest thou 
me?'' he was inaugurated pre-eminently, they say, in the 
signal words, '^ Feed my sheep," ^' Feed my lambs.") 
Strange that such dignitaries overlook Peter's own 
words in the construction of his pre-eminence (1 Pet. 
V. 1-4) : " The elders which are among you I exhort, 
who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of 
Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be re- 
vealed : feed the flock of God which is among you, tak- 
ing the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but will- 
ingly ; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind ; neither 
as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples 
to the flock. And when the chief She])herd shall appear 
ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." 
Every line of this quotation, without a comment, must 
refute Bellarmine and reduce the conceits of such in- 
terpreters. 

2. Succession. 
If no primacy can be admitted, under the light of 
God's word, in the college of the apostles, the derivation 
of it in history must be rejected as usurpation, and anti- 
Christian in its nature. Unhappily, however, the logic 
of usurped authority, both in Church and in State, 
becomes in the course of time arrogant as it is hoary 
and dogmatic as it is weak ; and when the word of God 
is a sealed book to the people and no beginning there 
can be seen with their own eyes, they are pointed to the 
fabric itself, now gray with traditions, and thus made to 
believe that such a building must have had its "founda- 
tion in the holy mountains." It is, then, a part of our 
task to refute in detail the inconsequence as well as the 
original premises. A ministry of witnessing, as we 



OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 161 

have seen that of the apostles to be, is in its nature 
contemporaneous with the facts themselves attested, and 
therefore essentially transient. Here we might fairly 
desist from the discussion which comes down the lines 
of alleged transmission, but vain tradition hinders a 
brevity like this. Two schemes of apostolic succession 
meet us here — the popish and the prelatic, monarchy 
and aristocracy — in Church government. The one claims 
one line from Peter alone ; the other, as many lines as 
there were apostles and have been prelates. 

Respecting the former, the Romish claim, we have 
already seen that the first principle of it, the supremacy 
of Peter, is untenable in the light of Holy Scripture, 
and no derivation from him, of course, can be traced in 
the Bible or authentic history. We now affirm that 
even if Peter had tlie pre-eminence in sacred history 
it died with himself; it could not have been trans- 
mitted — 

1. Because the Scriptures are silent on the subject. 
Whether they be received as the only rule of faith and 
practice or not, silence on the point is fatal, because, 
next to the being of a God and the mission of his Son, 
the most important article of Christianity is not men- 
tioned on their pages at this view of Church polity. 
The Bible gives us minor offices with minuteness of de- 
tail — the prophets, evangelists, elders, deacons and dea- 
conesses — but not a woid respecting this great office, the 
fountain of all ecclesiastical office or authority upon 
earth, a feature masked on Christianity which alters 
alike its aspect, its nature, its liberty, life and blessed- 
ness. Indeed, " the names of blasphemy ^' seem to be 
inscribed on this succession when standard polemics 
would say " our Lord God the pope,'^ and such a 
11 



162 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

champion as Bellarmine would die leaving in legacy '^half 
his soul to the Virgin Mary, and the other half to her 
Son, Jesus Christ." Surely, if such be Christian re- 
ligion, the inspired records would not have been silent 
on what we say of its incredibility. 

If history were luminous and authentic on the actual 
transmission of this line, there might be some color of 
claim in the tradition ; but history never presented a 
more vexed and still unsettled question than that of a 
legitimate papacy. Who is the pope, when so many 
chances may have broken the descent, and so many 
severances have sundered the chain and made suc- 
cessions but spurious till the end of time ? Who is he 
in history, when one man is enthroned by cardinals and 
another by a mob at Rome, or when the conclave has 
elected one and the king of France or the emperor of 
Germany another? Which is pope, when one is mitred 
at Rome and the other at Avignon, or when the triple 
crown is seized with triple hands and the world is 
shaken by the noise of three thunders all equally in- 
fallible and equally fatal to the head of a rival ? Man's 
salvation, according to this claim, depends on a problem 
in history which all candid research must give up in 
despair. 

2. The express mention in Scripture of despotic 
usurpation to come after the apostles have left the 
stage, predicted in the prophecies of Daniel, the Epistles 
of Paul and the visions of John in Patmos, and de- 
scribed as '^ anti-Christian," ^' the mystery of iniquity," 
"that wicked," "that man of sin, the son of perdition; 
who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is 
called God, or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, 
sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he 



OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 163 

is God." 2 Thess. ii. 4. Whether we apply the descrip- 
tion to this papal rise and succession or not, the argu- 
ment is good against it, for the Bible would surely in- 
form us of the true power when denouncing the false, 
and refer us to legitimate authority when warning us 
against the illegitimate, as it does continually in the 
pledge and promise of Christ for his presence and power 
alway, even to the end. Otherwise, the Holy Scriptures 
would be a directory for the Church inferior ev^en to the 
statutes of men in the common codes and proclamations 
of State. 

3. Such a succession destroys New-Testament liberty. 
Nothing is more abundantly revealed than superior 
liberty under this latter dispensation, freedom from 
the yoke and burdens which our fathers were not able 
to bear, the handwriting of ordinances, cumbrous ritual 
and stringent authority of a carnal priesthood. But no 
domination in the priesthood of old can be compared for 
spiritual despotism with this power, whose coming upon 
the Church has been " with all deceivableness of un- 
righteousness." As early as the fourth century, when 
his power was but incipient and the superstitious bands 
he has gathered lay scattered about with no one master to 
fasten them, Augustine said the yoke laid upon the Jews 
was more supportable than that upon the Christians of 
his day. 

4. It destroys even apostolic prestige. If Peter had 
a vicegerent supremacy, continued in his alleged suc- 
cessors, the first of these, according to one of the con- 
flicting catalogues of Roman bishops, must have been 
Linus, a name unknown in Scripture and subsequent 
history except the catalogue alone. John lived some 
thirty years after Peter, writing canonical Scripture and 



164 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

entitled as much as any of the apostles had been to 
exercise paramount authority in all the churches ; but 
he is, of course, to be subject to any obscure head in this 
succession while he survives, and bound to submit him- 
self, his acts and his revelations to the Index of some 
Linus, Clement, Cletus or Anacletus. 

5. It supersedes the use of inspired Scriptures. Peter 
himself was busy before his demise in furnishing words 
of inspiration for the guidance of the Church after he 
should put off his tabernacle, intimating in the plainest 
manner that the Holy Scriptures, and not any living 
man or succession of men, were to follow him in his 
extraordinary or apostolical authority : " Yea, I think 
it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you 
up, by putting you in remembrance ; knowing that 
shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our 
Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. Moreover I will 
endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to 
have these things always in remembrance." 2 Pet. i. 
13-15. Obviously, there can be no apostolical succes- 
sion but that of one generation to another, holding in 
remembrance the testimony of apostles placed on record 
by themselves and the inspiration which indited that 
record. A succession of fallible or infallible men to 
dictate what we must believe and what we must do 
dispenses with a written word for such a purpose, and 
naturally, therefore, becomes indifferent to this word 
and intent on hiding and chaining it when the chief 
thing to be believed and to be done perpetually — their 
own apostolate — is not even hinted on its pages. 

6. Such a succession also usurps the office and work 
of the Holy Spirit. Another agent stands up to take 
of the things which are Christ's and show them to us. 



OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. ■ 165 

Another paraclete appears to comfort the Church and 
carry od the development of her life and germs of faith 
and practice committed to her culture. Another au- 
thority calls men to the ministry, trains them, furnishes 
them for work and sends them to the field of their 
destination. Another test of union to Christ than the 
graces of the Spirit claims the devout aspirations of the 
faithful — the acknowledgment of this incarnate legit- 
imacy which ignores the fruit of the Spirit as evidence 
of its own valid transmission. In this connection it 
becomes that corporate apostasy described in Heb. vi. 
4-8 : " For it is impossible for those who were once 
enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and 
were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted 
the good word of God, and the powers of the world to 
come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto 
repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son 
of God afresh, and put him to an open shame." Let 
history come and here offer an exegesis which might 
remove a controversy between Calvinist and Arminian 
embarrassing to both — between the saints' perseverance 
and the restoration of backsliders, individually consid- 
ered. It is the noun of multitude, the body ecclesias- 
tical, the close corporation, which perpetuates itself be- 
yond recall, that specially hazards the "impossible" 
here. 

7. Such a succession usurps the office of Christ him- 
self, substituting a carnal vicegerency for the spiritual 
presence of our Lord promised to be everywhere and 
alway. No created being, man or angel, could bear 
upon his shoulder what this monarchy affects. To be 
the vicegerency of Christ, as it pretends, there must be 
much of omniscience and omnipotence conferred upon 



166 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

mortals — to know the condition of every church, the 
head and heart of every minister, and even the invisible 
designs of earth and hell against the Church. There 
must be, also, the transfer of every other kind of au- 
thority made subsidiary in the hands of our exalted 
Lord, such as the Government of governments. King 
of kings and Lord of lords for the supreme safety and 
welfare of the Church. The arrant pretensions of Hil- 
debrand in his " dictates " are fair and logical inferences 
of great moderation at this view. Popes Innocent and 
Adrian are specimens of meekness, and to make a hos- 
tler of an emperor at the stirrup of His Holiness did 
but signify the paramount dominion of a chief priest in 
Christendom. And, far beyond this political supremacy, 
there must be moral power in such imperial pretension 
derived from Christ, in whom it is infinite — power to 
turn the hearts of men at his pleasure and make them 
willing in the day of his power — else infallibility is not 
Christian at all, and is foiled in its efforts and impotent 
in its aim. Surely the crown of Jesus cannot rest upon 
the mitre of such ambition ! 

The papal doctrine of succession has to be refuted in 
three premises of the system : (1) The original primacy 
of Peter ; (2) The transmission of it through successive 
generations ; and (3) The identification of it in the line 
of bishops at Pome. In considering the absurdity of 
such transmission anywhere we could not avoid some 
special reference to this descent by way of illustration, 
for the Latin line is the only Western one extant, and 
ever loud and aggressive, both in history and in obser- 
vation, to challenge our attention. We should, there- 
fore, now consider briefly this third point. If Peter 
had a pre-eminence conferred by his Master in the 



OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 167 

midst of the twelve, and this pre-eraineuce descended 
by divine appointment anywhere, it cannot have come 
down in tlie channel of Koman bishops — 

1. Because Peter was never at Rome at all, so far as 
sacred history has made his record. This reveals minutely 
his ti-avels and labors in witnessing for Christ — his visits to 
Samaria, Lydda, Joppa, Csesarea, etc. — and never a word 
of his visit to Rome, a destination compared with which 
all other acts and travels of all the apostles were unim- 
portant details if the assumption of a mere tradition that 
he went there on any other errand than to die were true. 
Paul went to Rome, and the same historian gives to this 
fact a conspicuous record. That great apostle himself in 
his extensive correspondence from and to Rome never 
mentions Peter, while he names many others entitled to 
honor as fellow-laborers in planting the gospel there. 
If Peter was absent on account of persecution or on the 
business of a vicegerent, why does he not write to 
them, as Cyprian afterward did when driven from his 
flock by the sword of violence? Not even a Romish 
tradition exists of such pastoral fidelity. The letters he 
did write make no mention of Rome in either the 
address, the date or the body of a letter. The place 
from which one was written is Babylon, where he had 
gone as the apostle of the circumcision, it being the 
centre of Jewish influence and numbei-s from the time 
of Daniel to that of the Talmud. The date of this 
Epistle is reckoned fairly to have been within the year 
60, and on its pages we learn that he had been pre- 
viously engaged in Asia, Pontus, Bithynia and Cappa- 
docia. About the year 51 he must have been at the 
council of apostles and elders in Jerusalem, and could 
Dot have been at Rome previously ; for the inspired 



168 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

Darrative fills up the time with his labors elsewhere. 
Between 51 and 60 he must have been at Autioch, 
where history assigns at least five years of his life, 
and most papal writers say seven. The other three or 
four years of his life, at most, in this interval, must 
have been little enough time to make the great circuit 
of his acquaintance through Asia Minor embraced in 
the address of his letters. We must look for his resi- 
dence at Rome, therefore, after the year 60, at which 
date, probably, his First Epistle was written from Bab- 
ylon. He could not have been there within the first four 
years after that date, for, not to speak of the great dis- 
tance and delay of such a journey, stopping on his way 
so much to confirm the believers in every city, we must 
put down the presence of Paul at Rome within this 
period — say the year 62, which is generally assigned 
for his arrival there. Peter could not have been there 
before Paul arrived and not be mentioned at all among 
the others who had planted the gospel there and met 
Paul at Appii forum. And for the same reason he 
could not have been there for the next two years, during 
which Paul dwelt in his own hired house. We have 
but three years of Peter's life remaining — from 64 to 
67 — in which it would seem possible for him to have 
been at Rome at all. But these three years were the 
time of persecution begun by Nero in 64 — the very date 
of martyrdom to him and Paul together given in the 
reckoning of many on this mere tradition. Yet, adding 
three years more, the later date of 67 might have given 
him opportunity, like Paul, to bear witness for Christ at 
Rome also, but surely could have given him no possi- 
bility in that storm of founding and regulating an 
apostolic see for all generations. 



OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 169 

2. Admitting, however, that Peter did fix at Rome 
the seat of Iiis authority, he could not have been at the 
foundation of that imperial Church. The Epistles of 
Paul put it beyond a doubt that others had begun the 
organization at Rome, and he must have built on other 
men's foundation and been himself a successor in the 
line originating tliere. 

3. Admitting, again, that Peter could have been there 
as an apostolic bishop and first bishop too, why should 
the line he started at Rome be preferred to the line he 
started at Autioch, where he must have labored in the 
vigor and prime of apostolic virtue, and far longer time 
than conjecture could allow him at Rome ? 

4. The successors at Rome never claimed this suprem- 
acy of power in the earlier centuries. Late as the close 
of the sixth century Gregory the Great — by no means 
backward to assert prerogatives — declared, in opposition 
to the claim of primacy by John the Faster at Constan- 
tinople, that for any man to pretend authority over all 
Christendom was of the devil, anti-Christian and ac- 
cursed. 

5. Others would not concede it for centuries after the 
claim was made. The reluctance of thrones and mitres, 
councils, universities, and even of cloisters, the confusion 
of its champions among themselves in every attempt to 
define the rights and limits of this papal ascendency, fill 
the largest page of mediaeval history and prove that it 
was a novel usurpation. Infallibility faltered all the 
way down to the Council of Trent. Liberius subscribed 
the Arian heresy, Zosimus condemned, approved, sanc- 
tioned and cursed the Pelagian faith with as many turns 
as he had visits from the heretic or letters from Augus- 
tine. Vigilius changed his faith five times at the nod of 



170 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

an emperor, and Honorius to this day lies accursed as a 
heretic by the Sixth General Council and the voice of 
his own successors. 

6. The supremacy of the Roman see may be explained 
as a matter of fact without the hypothesis of a line from 
Peter. It is neither philosophical nor religious to give 
more causes than are sufficient to account for any phe- 
nomenon. Church history points out the ways in which 
this arrogance advanced to its acme of power. It was 
the only apostolic see in the West, and took advantage 
of this unity as umpire in controversies, which were in- 
cessant among the bishops of the East, and led them to 
lay Greek mitres at the feet of this one Latin pope. Its 
position at the Imperial City, so convenient for alliance 
with civil and military power, the dexterity of pontiffs 
in surviving the wreck of empire and winning to them- 
selves the veneration with which Goths and Vandals 
and Lombards had regarded their own chief Druid — 
in short, the whole series of causes in religious quarrel, 
political finesse and fortunate concurrence of oppor- 
tunities for aggrandizement — will not allow us for a 
moment to feel the need of any virtue from St. Peter 
to account for the enormity of spiritual despotism. 

7. Wickedness in this line forfeits the claim of apostolic 
virtue : a vicious man cannot be a lawful bishop, even of 
Rome. If there be one fundamental canon of the min- 
istry more sacred than another, it is forfeiture of function 
for immorality. The Church that will not enforce the 
penalty and estop the tradition just there must be cast 
away and her succession doomed, like that of Thyatira. 
All men must know that immoral men are integral links 
of this ecclesiastical chain at Rome — not thereby un- 
churching Latin Christianity, but assuredly interrupt- 



OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 171 

ing saintship and makiDg spurious the ordinations from 
such polluted hands, wherever, at least, ^' committing ^' 
to faithful and able men is held to be the communication 
of something which one man has, and another has not, 
of spiritual gift. Even after civilization and letters had 
redeemed the people from torpor and death a debauched 
Alexander, a bloody Julius and an atheistic Leo, in 
almost immediate succession to one another, carried on 
the line. 

8. The impossibility of tracing this line. Not to 
dwell on the embarrassment which irregular elections 
and violent expulsions and simoniacal bargains and 
acrimonious divisions and protestation of councils have 
occasioned the canon law in folios of doubt which fill 
the shelves of the Vatican, let us take the most reason- 
able and simple of all methods — bring the opposite ends 
of the line together and judge of its genuine continuity. 
When it began the people elected the bishop of Rome 
and fellow-presbyters laid on their hands in ordination. 
Now a few cardinals of scarlet hat and purpled mantle 
choose him in a conclave, and more than the ceremony 
of kingly coronation must be had for his inauguration. 
At first the husband of one wife, having faithful chil- 
dren, a man not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to 
filthy lucre, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, tem- 
perate, was the man qualified for that pastorate, guid- 
ing the flock, confessing Christ and taking the martyr's 
crown. Now a withered ascetic, forbidding to marry, 
having children like Csesar Borgia, if any, whose self- 
will is infallibility itself, angered at every change of 
politics and the shadow of indifference to his own pre- 
rogatives, draining the wealth of kingdoms to fill his 
insatiable coffers, a persecuting enemy to good men who 



172 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

think for themselves, intolerant, unjust and depraved to 
any extent his habits may lead him, — this is the man if 
he is a native Italian and not refused by France and 
Spain. Between such characters who can run a line or 
believe that the primitive and the modern incumbent 
are in the same continuity of ordination and possessing 
the same credibility as witnesses for Christ and ^' gov- 
ernments '' for the Church? 

Thus it is evident that the tripartite fabric of papal 
usurpation cannot stand the test of either Scripture or 
history. Peter had no primacy conferred on him ; and 
if he had, it could not have been transmitted, and if 
transmitted anywhere it cannot be identified in the suc- 
cession of pontificates at Rome. But, whilst we thus 
reject the whole structure of papal supremacy and the 
sacerdotal ministration it claims, the people under such 
a yoke are not to be unchurched with wholesale derelic- 
tion. Myriads have found salvation beneath the pall of 
popish night because of grace abounding, and how far 
the alchemy of saving grace will extract sweetness from 
the carcass of rotten superstition and cunning priest- 
craft God only knows. There is " nothing too hard for 
the Lord ;'' let ours be the task of restoring a different 
system, which will open the facilities of being saved, 
and saved well, " to the uttermost," and yet a system 
old as the call and the covenant of Abraham. 



CHAPTER VII. 

PRELATICAL SUCCESSION. 

THE great Reformation from popery was arrested in 
both of its main branches, Lutheran and Reformed, 
at the reconstruction of a ransomed Church, by the jeal- 
ousies of civil monarchy. The affinity of thrones to 
hierarchy is natural and historical because of the mutual 
support they are seen to afford each other, and especially 
where Church and State are united in constitution. Yet 
the concession made by Reformers to gradations of rank 
in the government of the Church was merely political 
in its nature, without the slightest claim of divine right 
or scriptural sanction for hierarchy in Sweden, Denmark 
or England. Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury — 
called by historians "founder of the English Church^' 
— is said to have tendered the resignation of his office 
at the demise of his king, so much did he consider the 
primacy of England a political promotion rather than 
apostolical heritage. All the British Reformers viewed 
Anglican prelacy in the same light — as a civil more 
than as a religious polity — until near the close of the 
sixteenth century. Then, after Richard Bancroft (arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, 1604) preached the divine right of 
bishops against the validity of Genevan, Dutch, Scotch 
and French orders and wherever only one order of the 
ministry was held, and almost simultaneously with this 

17S 



174 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

departure Thomas Gartwright was ejected from his pro- 
fessorship at Cambridge for opposition to three orders 
and the Liturgy, with his known authorship of the 
" Martin-Mar-Prelate ^^ literature, Presbyterian ism was 
unchurched, and the course of prelacy from its original 
basis of political expedience had henceforth to lodge 
itself in papal glossology and call its highest order 
apostolical. 

We may well wonder that the enlightened Protestant 
Episcopal Church of England and America, as it con- 
tinues the style and exclusiveness of Bancroft, could 
overlook the mission of apostles to bear witness for 
Christ, and not to rule at all except as it is merely 
incidental and subservient to preaching the gospel, and 
that our missionaries to the heathen, at home and abroad, 
are the most apostolic of all modern ministers. The 
keys of the kingdom were indeed committed to all the 
apostles .alike, but it was expressly for the purpose of 
"opening and shutting'^ — bringing in and adding to 
the Church (already organized) "such as should be 
saved'' by means of their testimony, and shutting out 
the false, ignorant and immoral by the exercise of that 
discipline which consisted in the application of the word 
to the offences of men, and in w^iich they called upon 
the people to assist them and do it themselves in the 
absence of the apostles, as Paul authorized the Co- 
rinthians to do. Power was a reserve in their Head 
himself, and the streams of mission among men must 
never make a reservoir in men themselves : " All power 
is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye there- 
fore, and teach all nations." 

But let us examine the claims of this peculiar kind 
of apostolic succession, which, excluding Peter's primacy 



PRELATICAL SUCCESSION. 175 

and its transmission in but one line, holds the supe- 
riority of diocesan bishops over presbyters as an apos- 
tolic emanation, and the transmission of it in historical 
lines when it is old, and the origination of it in some 
house of bishops or by the authority of an archbishop 
when it is new. Much as this claim seems to possess of 
plausibility over the Romish, it is forlorn, comparatively, 
in the array of its defenders. The service it does to Rome, 
running with her on one line before the Reformation, is 
not reciprocated. " You Presbyterians," said Arch- 
bishop Magee, " have religion without a Church ; they 
(the papists) have a Church without religion." But Car- 
dinal Bellarmine had anticipated the sarcastic epigram 
by saying, '' Bishops have no part of the true apostolic 
authority. Apostles could preach and found churches 
in every part of the world ; bishops cannot do this. 
Apostles could write canonical epistles ; bishops cannot 
do this. Apostles had the gift of tongues and the 
power of working miracles ; this does not belong to 
bishops. Apostles had jurisdiction over the whole 
Church ; this is not possessed by the bishops. There- 
fore, bishops can have no part of the true apostolic 
office." Coinciding for once with Bellarmine, we would 
argue against the prelatical pretension — 

I. The impossibility of identifying in these modern 
chimaiits any one, and much more the assemblage, of 
qualifications specified in Scripture as necessary to the 
office of apostle. With this absolute want we must 
connect the end of that great office — to bear witness 
among all nations of what they had seen and heard in 
their companionship with Jesus. Power apart from 
testi.nony was never exercised by the original twelve 
unless it was in common with other disciples — evan- 



176 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

gelists, prophets, elders, deacons, and even "servants 
and handmaids," who were endued with power from 
on high at the time of Pentecost. Yet that power 
was not governmental at all, but demonstrative, as 
evidence to corroborate the witnessing errand to which 
the newly-nascent Church of Christianity was univer- 
sally committed. When Matthias was elected in the 
place of Judas, the remarkable speech of Peter to the 
voters explaining the occasion, the necessity and the 
fitness of the disciple to be chosen by the assembly of 
" about one hundred and twenty " did not hint in one 
syllable that upon himself as an apostle rested, in any 
manner, the responsibility of organizing, directing or 
superintending the Church or the incipiency of the 
Church at that time. Every word he uttered bore 
upon the qualifications and need of another witness, 
converging at the close in these pregnant words : " Must 
one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrec- 
tion." Yet, strangely enough, the succession of Mat- 
thias to Judas, we are now told, is an instance of apos- 
tolical succession in the line of paramount authority and 
government of the Church ! Judas had never filled 
the office of apostle ; though nominated with the others 
and privileged to receive the instruction of our Lord, 
he fell and went "to his own place" before the ap- 
pointed season came to be sent forth as a witness. The 
filling of a vacancy in such circumstances could not be 
succession to an office. Besides, Matthias had the in- 
transmissible qualifications of other apostles, one of 
which, at least, Judas did not possess : " Witness with 
us of his resurrection." And, still more, no modern 
claimant is chosen by the promiscuous ballot of a whole 
assembly of disciples, as Matthias was. Official succes- 



PRELATICAL SUCCESSION. 177 

sion and popular suifrage do not go together in any 
gradation of hierarchical systems as it was in the choice 
of a primitive bishop. King James's translators call the 
position from which the apostate fell "a bishoprick." 
Acts i. 20. But why did they not call it ''deaconship/' 
as the original word signifies in the seventeenth verse, 
which they translate by the general term '' ministry '' ? 
Prelacy is not fond, however, of making Judas head of 
a line. Bishop Gleig says he was a presbyter ; Arch- 
bishop Potter says he was a deacon ; and it must be a 
polemical strait which would begin the only apparent 
succession in the Bible with the first of traitors and 
apostates at the head of a line. 

Another fact — indicating, at least, an extension be- 
yond "the twelve,'^ and therefore, it is claimed, an in- 
definite multiplication of predecessors and lines of apos- 
tolical superiors in ruling the Church — is the calling of 
Paul to apostleship. But why may we not rather sup- 
pose that Paul was chosen to fill a vacancy, as Matthias 
had been, and this vacancy was occasioned by the death 
of James, the son of Zebedee, who did not live to make 
"full proof ^' of his ministry as an apostle? Besides, 
this great apostle gives us to understand that his calling 
was exceptional : " Born out of due time, and not meet 
txD be called an apostle," " Less than the least of all 
saints," etc. The emphasis with which he notices the 
anomaly of his own vocation surely indicates that the 
office was not ordinarily extended nor transmitted. 
Moreover, he also, and even pre-eminently in some 
respects, possessed the intransmissible qualifications of 
"the twelve," and it is remarkable that this junior 
apostle " not meet to be called " one figures the most in 
church government: "So ordain T, in all the churches." 

12 



178 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

With him conscious inferiority was a conscious call to 
govern, organize and dictate pastoral epistles for in- 
struction and guidance of ministers and }>eople. The 
relative inferiority of governing to preaching is thus 
indicated with peculiar significance, and consequently 
"governments'' should inherit for ever a subordinate 
place in apostolic evangelism. 

Still another fact urged for the extension of the orig- 
inal band is that Barnabas, with Paul, is called an apostle 
in Acts xiv. 4, 14, where the denomination is plural — 
" apostles." This is the only instance of the title given 
to Barnabas, even by implication, whilst Paul is dis- 
tinctly called "apostle'' seventeen times, and the twelve 
collectively fifty-four times, in Scripture. This might 
fairly raise the presumption that Barnabas is so called 
because of his association with Paul in being sent from 
Antioch on a special mission, the full record of which 
is found in Acts xiii., xiv. Indeed, both seem to have 
been sent from a Presbytery at Antioch by special 
direction of the Holy Ghost and with the ceremony 
of ordination, fasting, prayer and the laying on of 
hands — altogether anomalous in the case of an apostle 
unless the word be taken in the secondary sense of an 
ordinary minister, a religious messenger, as it undoubt- 
edly means in 2 Cor. viii. 23. Paul was just as willing 
to be called " a messenger of Christ " with Barnabas as 
Peter and John were willing to call themselves "elders." 
Cave conjectures well that Barnabas had been one of 
the seventy sent out to herald the ministry of our Lord 
wherever he purposed to go throughout the country, 
and therefore possessed the miraculous powers of that 
age, as well as Paul, which even from that secondary 
meaning of "apostle" could not be transmitted to sue- 



PRELATICAL SUCCESSION. 179 

ceeding generations. Take all the persons called by 
this name in any one of its three senses, technical, offi- 
cial or appellative — take Timothy, Silas, Epaphroditus, 
Andronicus and Junia, as well as tlie certain brethren 
who accompanied Titus to Corinth — and say they were 
all apostles in the highest sense of the great office, and 
they can have no successors now in the "signs of an 
apostle,^^ '' wonders and mighty , deeds,'' to attest the 
dignity of such inheritance. 

We are met again by the same begging of the question 
in regard to the true sense of the word "apostle" where 
the application of it is doubtful at all. Thus, in 1 
Thessaloniaus, at the beginning, we read, " Paul and 
Silvanus and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thes- 
salonians,'' and then, reading on to the sixth verse of 
the second chapter, we read there, " Nor of men sought 
we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we 
might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ.'' 
Here, it is alleged, is a manifest application of the name 
"apostles" to Silas and Timothy, as well as to Paul 
himself. But is everything said in the body of an 
epistle to be applied alike to each one mentioned in the 
form of salutation, either at the beginning or at the end 
of a letter? And even here, on such assumption, we 
must include with Paul both Silas and Timothy in the 
maltreatment of Paul at Philippi (Acts xvi. 22), which 
was not a fact in the case of Timothy. The use of "we" 
interchangeably with " I " is familiar in the diction of 
Paul, as we see in this very connection (1 Thess. ii. 18) : 
" Wherefore, we would have come unto you, even I 
Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us." And 
then, passing on to the third chapter, first verse, he 
says, " When we could no longer for! ear," and, verse 5, 



180 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

" When / could uo longer forbear/' in reference to the 
veVy same thing. It should be noticed also here that 
the particle "as'' itself makes the application of the 
term " apostles " to Silas and Timothy doubtful in the 
sense, and the expression may mean, " \ye might have 
been burdensome as the apostles of Christ" have a right 
to he, thus reducing it again to the secondary sense of 
ministers or messengers of Christ in general. 

Another instance of doubtful application is in Rom. 
xvi. 7, where Andronicus and Junia are said to be " of 
note among the apostles " — that is, in grammatical con- 
struction either they were quite renowned as apostles or 
they were held in high esteem among the apostles for 
their zeal, intelligence and liberal hospitality; and bibli- 
cal history demands the latter construction, beyond a 
doubt. Thus we see how vain, and even frivolous, 
must be the play upon words — names which have a 
double, and even triple, sense often in Scripture — to 
widen a basis for the derivation of apostolical virtue 
to the succession of the highest in three orders of tlie 
ministry as maintained in the gradations of modern 
prelacy. The pretension which would extend the orig- 
inal number of apostles in order to make it descend 
with apostolical succession excludes this one Greek name 
of office from the principles of interpretation and com- 
mon sense which apply to all otlier names of office — 
deacon, elder, etc. It makes every messenger like 
Epaphroditus equal to Paul in dignity, and every 
deacon equal to him in the ministry, and every old 
man a presbyter equal to John and Peter. 

II. The original and only band of apostles that ever 
existed, or can exist, in the Church of Christ appear 
always in Scripture history as a distinct body of men. 



PRELATICAL SUCCESSION. 181 

unique, well defined and strongly marked, making on 
the mind of an unsophisticated reader the conviction 
that they were a temporary institution. In sacred his- 
tory they are like a constituent assembly, or convention 
of the people to form a constitution or to recognize a 
good constitution, in whole or in part, already formed, 
and then give place to representatives of the people in 
legislative, judicial and executive power to carry on the 
government they have sanctioned. Who does not think 
of the apostles as a temporary order already off the stage 
or just departing when he reads the seventeenth and 
eighteenth verses of Jude : ^* But, beloved, remember 
ye the words which were spoken before of the apos- 
tles of our Lord Jesus Christ ; how that they told you 
there should be mockers in the last time, who should 
walk after their own ungodly lusts '' ? or that sublime 
apostrophe in Rev. xviii. 20 : '^ Rejoice over her, thou 
heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God 
hath avenged you on her'^? (See also Rev. xxi. 14, 
where we have " the twelve apostles of the Lamb '' 
inscribed on twelve foundations in the heavenly Jeru- 
salem.) There is in such passages a style of definite 
allusion which manifestly precludes the indefinite ex- 
tension and succession of the apostolic office, and it is 
absurd to suppose that the primitive Church would 
have been so indifferent to such a succession as to take 
elders universally for governors and compel the old 
Jewish hierarchy to creep back again by degrees after 
centuries of suppression, during which, according to 
Irenaeus and many others, the succession was carried 
on through elders. 

It will not avail the advocates of apostolical succes- 
sion in prelacy to cite 2 Cor. xi. 13 and Rev. ii. 2 



182 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

against the palpable facts of history. The former quo- 
tation is, " For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, 
transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ,'' 
and the latter thus : *' Thou hast tried them which say 
they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them 
liars." How could there be pretenders, it is asked, 
if no genuine apostolic successors were in existence? 
This argument is another begging of the question in 
regard to the meaning of the word '' apostle," affirming 
of the thing that is to be proved that it is to be taken 
only in the first of three distinct senses in which it is 
used by Holy Writ. We affirm with exegetical justice 
that there were in the field just then genuine apostles 
abundantly as the word is found in 2 Cor. viii. 23 : 
" Or our brethren be enquired of, they are the messen- 
gers [apostles] of the churches, and the glory of Christ." 
All our parochial bishops, all our missionary ministers, 
all our teaching elders, are apostles in the sense of 
Christian "messengers" according to the translation 
made at first, and recently made again, by Protestant 
Episcopalian scholars. 

But, even yielding to the beggarly argument this 
point, we may well say that the existence of false 
apostles, in any sense of the word, does not imply 
necessarily the existence of true apostles in the same 
sense at the same time : it implies no more than that the 
true existed at some time. Fanatics have appeared in 
every age pretending to visions and revelations, and 
even to gift of tongues and working of miracles, and 
claiming a commission to go forth as religious ambas- 
sadors to all nations. We may call such " false apos- 
tles" now without meaning at all that the original 
"twelve" are now in the field on their lineal descent 



PRELATICAL SUCCESSION. 183 

among the diguitaries of Christendom. The apostle 
John was then living, and these false apostles might 
have been counterfeit elders pretending to be messen- 
gers (apostles) sent by him, or they may have been 
adversaries to John, like "Diotrephes, who loveth to 
have the pre-eminence among them,'' and would not 
receive messages from the venerable exile in Patmos. 
3 John 9. " To have the pre-eminence among them '' 
was always illicit, alien and reprehensible under the 
mastery of Jesus himself and under all his true disciples 
who should afterward encounter this baleful ambition 
through the ages. 

"The pre-eminence" we combat now has still another 
petitio princlpii with which it would blur the finish of 
the apostolical order in the original twelve. The angels 
of the seven churches (Rev. ii., iii.), it is claimed, must 
have been diocesan bishops of the respective churches, 
presiding over and representing these to God and men. 
This bald assertion has no plausibility whatever to com- 
mend it. Like dnoaToko^, the word ciyyeXoi: (" angel ") 
has three distinct senses in Scripture, the highest mean- 
ing a spiritual order of beings above mankind, and in a 
special way applied to Christ himself; an intermediate 
sense of religious messengers, applied by our Lord to 
John the Baptist ; and the common appellative sense of 
messengers merely — occurring most frequently, and often 
in miscellaneous agencies, good and bad, material and 
immaterial — to execute the purposes and the judgments 
of God. As there was in the old ecclesia continued by 
Christ and his apostles in their ministry an angel of the 
synagogue delegated by foreign synagogues to represent 
them at Jerusalem, so it was natural, if not inevitable, 
that the name and the office would pass on to the Chris- 



184 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

tian Cluircli of the future; and the fact of its use in this 
connection is another beautiful indication of the per- 
petuity with which our divine Head connects one dis- 
pensation with another by a living institute as well as by 
an inspired book. Whatever may be the precise mean- 
ing of the metaphor, it is certainly not ruling over the 
Church, but some function of missionary evangelism in 
teaching and preaching; for in the fourteenth chapter 
and sixth verse of Revelation we read, " I saw an- 
other angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the ever- 
lasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the 
earth, and to every nation and kindred and tongue and 
people.'' Scripture is the best interpreter of Scripture ; 
and the seven angels must be, therefore, seven preachers, 
and not seven prelates. They were simply pastors or 
parochial bishops, presbyters, with oversight of their 
respective pastoral charges, in which sense alone they 
were Episcopalians. Or w^e may take each of those 
angels in the collective sense and consider it personated 
in the clerk of a Presbytery of greater or less propor- 
tion, to whom letters and messages would be sent for 
the body he served. Or we may go down to the simple 
adjective sense of the word, and with Dr. Killen sup- 
pose they were messengers merely of the seven churches 
respectively, who were sent to the apostle John with 
presents for his necessities in the rocky and sterile island 
of Patmos, and received in return the messages of reve- 
lation for the churches they severally represented. Or we 
may ascend to the highest conceivable sense of the word 
as a name for any creature, and may suppose, with Dr. 
J. Addison Alexander, that, inasmuch as the Apociilypse 
resembles the prophecies of Daniel so much, the term 
here may mean the guardian angel of each church or 



PRELATICAL SUCCESSION. 185 

community of churclies adclrest>ecl in the visions of 
John.* Any one of these interpretations is colored 
with fair probability compared with the utterly unsup- 
ported assertion of prelacy that the angels must have 
been diocesan bishops. 

Bishop Mcllvaine exulted in what he considered a 
demonstration of this when he quotes Ignatius, of the 
second century, who had conversed with John the apos- 
tle, and who some twelve years after the Apocalypse 
was written said in a letter to the church of Ephesus 
that Onesimus was their bishop. Now, inasmuch as 
the church of Ephesus undoubtedly had a plurality of 
elders, as we see in Acts xx., where Paul sent for them 
to meet him at Miletus, and inasmuch as the collective 
term " church '' is used by Ignatius, the person denom- 
inated " angel '^ in the Revelation must have had a 
superintending dignity at Ephesus such as Paul had 
exercised over those elders, and therefore the said Ones- 
imus had in him the apostolical succession. But this 
argument takes for granted, again, the very thing to be 
proved — that " bishop " and " angel " are identical, and 
that the plurality of elders mentioned in Acts xx. were 
teaching, and not ruling, elders, and that, if teaching 
elders, they were all from the city of Ephesus, and not 
from the adjacent region also round about it, and if all 
from one city and centre that the plurality had not been 
reduced to a single pastor in the time of that Onesimus. 
The tangle of these previous questions puzzled Bishop 
Onderdonk himself, who, though less renowned for 
piety than his brother in Ohio, was quite his equal in 
acuteness. Both these erudite and able men admitted 

* This interpretation of "angel" seems to be preferred by Dr, 
Lightfoot, bishop of Durham, in his book on Philippians, p. 200. 



186 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

that *^ bishop '^ and "presbyter'' were the same in Holy 
Scripture and used convertibly there, and the difficulty 
which exercised both on the subject of these angels in 
Revelation was why the superintending authority in the 
Church should be called " angel '' here, and not " apos- 
tle" or "bishop.'' Bishop Onderdonk solves it in this 
way: "The name 'bishop' was in transitu just then 
from the second order to the first ; the former title of 
'apostle' was losing, or beginning to lose, its more 
general application, and the latter, 'bishop,' had not yet 
acquired its final appropriation." " The dignitaries in 
question were addressed when it was somewhat too late 
to call them apostles and somewhat too soon to call them 
hishoj^sJ^ Such a dodge of mere assertion may be left 
to answer itself as a specimen of logic in support of 
apostolic succession according to prelacy. 

Along with the "demonstration" of Bishop McTl- 
vaine and the clearing of its difficulty by Bishop Onder- 
donk we may range an incident in Presbyterian history. 
At the General Assembly met in Pittsburg in 1849 a 
commissioner from the Presbytery of New York, Dr. 
Phillips, handed to the clerk, at the opening, his cer- 
tificate in the usual form, stating that he was "bishop 
of the First Presbyterian Church, New York." In 
the memory of several members of that Assembly the 
same First Church had early in the century three paro- 
chial bishops in a collegiate arrangement, officiating in 
three different places of the same organization. These 
facts going down historically with the name "bishop" 
in our standard prescribed in the formula of commis- 
sion, and our Protestant Episcopalian brethren, admit- 
ting no one to be called " bishop " any more in the true 
scriptural use of the title, might exclaim, half a cen- 



PRELATICAL SUCCESSION. 187 

tury hence, that Dr. Phillips must have been a veritable 
diocesan having a considerable portion of New York 
for his oversight and other ministers for his suifragans. 
The same kind of process which in New York set off 
from time to time the Brick Church and the Rutgers 
Street Church into separate organizations, and one pastor 
for each, may have reduced the plurality of presbyters 
in the time of Paul distributed through Ephesus and 
its vicinity to one pastor in the city itself, called by 
•Ignatius "Onesimus," accepting the statement as genu- 
ine and as no part of the pseudo-Ignatian literature 
which is so abundant. 

Historical Failure of Apostolic Rank in 
Prelacy. 

Til. Other primitive offices of great importance in 
the Church are confessedly discontinued — the office of 
prophet, for example, and that of evangelist as the 
latter was exercised in the apostolical age. When the 
prophecies of the Old Testament had been expounded 
with sufficient clearness to the primitive Christians and 
all the predictions needed to sustain and comfort the 
New-Testament church had been uttered and recorded, 
and when the foundations of the Church had been laid 
and confirmed by apostolic aids and legates, the prophets 
and evangelists of the Pentecostal period were with- 
drawn as having finished their work. And why should 
not the apostolic office itself, which in its nature, end and 
the exigencies that brought it on the stage was the most 
extraordinary and transient of all, be considered as past 
altogether when its testimony had been given to the 
accessible nations and its constructive skill and authority 
had linked the ecclesia of the New to the Old Testa- 



188 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

ment dispensation by the ordination of '• elders in every 
church/^ transmuting to a Christian character the He- 
brew synagogue, oratory and school of the prophets? 
The Church needed no express declaration of God that 
this office had ceased when this work was done. No 
such declaration was needed to convince the children of 
Israel that the office of Moses and Joshua ceased when 
they were ultimately settled in Canaan, or that the 
Urim and the Thummim ceased to direct them when 
responses were no longer obtained from the breastplate 
of Aaron. No revelation was needed by the primitive 
Fathers that the office of prophet ceased when the 
apocalyptic visions of John were authenticated, nor 
that the inspiration of the Holy Ghost had ceased to 
indite canonical scriptures when the fact of a heavenly 
afflatus could be recognized no longer. And why should 
any one demand an express declaration that the office 
of apostle ceased when ministers no longer saw the 
person of Jesus with bodily eye, or received their com- 
mission immediately from him, or performed mighty 
deeds to the senses of men, or swayed paramount au- 
thority wherever they carried the gospel? 

IV. Early history presents a chasm over which apos- 
tolical succession cannot pass. The term " apostle " had 
manifestly ceased to be used in its highest official sense 
when the enraptured hearers of Chrysostom exclaimed, 
'^ Thou art the thirteenth apostle !" This one incident, 
among a thousand more which might be cited, shows 
incisively that the ancient Church had no thought 
of apostolical succession beyond the lives of the original 
" twelve," and the enlargement or continuance by a sin- 
gle unit was only the extravagance of Oriental hyperbole. 
"Many," says Eusebius, "were called ^apostles' by 



PRELATICAL SUCCESSION. 189 

way of imitation," which would not have been the case 
if the office itself had been transmitted. Men were not 
called "presbyters" by way of imitation. Ambrose 
of Milan, speaking of the most eminent and revered 
ministers of his day — although it was a time of much 
clerical ambition and affectation and though he himself 
was fond of titles, having been a civil ruler — says, "They 
thouo^ht it not decent to assume to themselves the name 
of * apostles,' but, dividing the names, they left to pres- 
byters the name of ^presbytery,' and they themselves 
were called ^ bishop?.' " A pretension which imperial 
Christianity itself repudiated is certainly incongruous in 
this age and this country. 

But along with these intimations that it was indecent 
even then for the highest dignities to affect apostolic 
name or derivation were many positive declarations that 
presbyters succeeded to all the vacancies left by the 
extraordinary witnesses " whom He named apostles." 
Ignatius himself said, "' Presbyters preside in the place 
of the council of apostles ;" " Let all reverence the 
presbyters as the Sanhedrim of God, and as the college 
of apostles ;" " See that ye follow presbyters as apos- 
tles." At the same time, and later in the centuries, it 
became customary to call " apostle " any prominent 
and extraordinary friend of the Church not in her 
ministry at all. Thus, Constantine the Great and his 
empress Helen are called dnoaToXoc by the writers of 
the fourth and fifth centuries, and so were eminent 
women who distinguished their fidelity to Christ in 
times of persecution and missionary hazard. Augus- 
tine and Jerome both speak of four kinds of apostles. 
In the first rank Jerome puts Moses and the prophets, 
Paul and the other apostles ; in the second rank he puts 



190 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

Joshua the son of Nun ; in the third rank, any officers 
of the Church regularly chosen and ordained according 
to the appointment of God ; and in the fourth rank 
such as come into the ministry of their own will with- 
out either internal or external call, imposing on the 
people. 

Thus we might easily gather from all patristic litera- 
ture, beginning with the Clements of Rome and Alex- 
andria and through the Augustan age to Theodoret of 
the fifth century, that the apostolic ministry was em- 
phatically the presbyters, who, when made overseers of 
a particular flock, were called ^* bishops ;" and even in 
them it was by accommodation of the word "apostle," 
which after the twelve departed everywhere descended 
to its appellative significance of '^ one seni,^^ and, espe- 
cially in the ecclesia, "a religious messenger sent." 
This remarkable disuse of the proper name "apostle" 
is conclusive against the claim of modern apostle-bishops 
to inherit the rank of primitive disciples chosen by our 
Lord to bear this name, because it was not the character 
of ancient Christianity so to intermit or abate the names 
which had been consecrated by the lips of our Saviour. 
He "called unto him his disciples, and of them he chose 
twelve, whom .also he named apostles." Luke vi. 13. 
No wonder that even in the fourth century aspirants to 
dignity and superiority in the Church " thought it not 
decent to assume to themselves the name of 'apostles;' " 
the wonder now is that so many good men of this gen- 
eration covet the style with fond complacency and eager 
asseveration. 

V. The local fixedness of a bishop precludes the 
propriety of prefixing the name of "apostle" or "apos- 
tolic" to such a term. "Diocesan" is a better adjective, 



PRELATfCAL SUCCESSrON. 191 

to distinguish it from the " bishop " of tlio Bible, that 
is parochial and convertible with " presbyter'^ beyond a 
question. Besides the unaccountable change of name 
is the marvel of a great transmutation from travelling 
over all countries, for the testimony of Jesus to a per- 
manent abode in one place must be explained by the 
assumption of apostolic virtue in the diocesan. On the 
true theory that the apostles were an extraordinary and 
transient order commissioned to bear witness for Christ 
and provide for the infant Church a ministry, to con- 
tinue their testimony in localities of fixed abode, com- 
posed of presbyters or bishops, according to their actual 
investment or not with pastoral oversight, all is natural 
and intelligible in the narrative of sacred institutions ; 
but on the hypothesis of a transmitted apostolate the 
sudden identification of this high and itinerant order 
with the local officers which sprung from their hands 
in ordaining them on the vote of any particular church, 
and that without a hint of such condescension in Script- 
ure, must be for ever inexplicable. ''As well might 
we call the king ' mayor of London ' and the bishop of 
London 'vicar of Pancras^ as to say that an apostle 
was bishop of some particular charge committed to his 
care.'' These words are quoted from an old English 
bishop who denied the claim of prelacy to any peculiar 
apostolicity. 

The fable, under the name of an old tradition, to 
which Bishop Gleig and others resort for an explana- 
tion is that the apostles, after the ascension of our Lord, 
divided among themselves the territories of the inhab- 
ited world. James had Judea, Paul had Syria, Peter 
had Italy, John had Asia Minor, Andrew had Scythia, 
Thomas had India, and so every one of the original 



192 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

apostles had his own diocese. The Bible itself is brought 
to bolster the story (2 Cor. x. 13): "But we will not 
boast of things without our measure; but according to 
the measure of the rule, which God hath distributed to 
us, a measure to reach even to you." The measure 
mentioned here, it is said, means the boundary of PauPs 
diocese. If so, however, it spoils the beauty of the 
alleged division, for in the sixteenth verse it seems clear 
that PauPs measure, geographically, would be pushed 
to Corinth and the regions beyond, and it actually was 
pushed to the centre of Italy, and perhaps the utmost 
boundary of the West, making him, according to the 
legend, the most erratic and unscrupulous intruder that 
was ever called by a prelatical name. Happily, we can 
refer to Episcopalians themselves for a better interpreta- 
tion — that the "measure'' is moral, and not physical; 
agonistic, and not geographical. Dr. Hammond says, 
" The allusion is to the Isthmian games, where each 
racer ran within two white lines which he might not 
transgress either right or left, so that there would be no 
jostle of each other in the course.'' Such lines were 
the apostle's measure, which God had distributed, not 
man, nor apostles among themselves, though doubtless 
they were agreed to respect one another's calling — one to 
" the circumcision," as Peter, James and John to the 
Jews; another to "the uncircumcision," as Paul — so 
that no one would interfere with another and build on 
his labors in traversing the globe. The measure of 
each apostle, then, would allow him the ends of the 
earth for his goal, provided he would not intrude 
into another man's work or speed on his own with rival 
ambition. 

The only historical basis on which the fiction of a 



PRELATICAL SUCCESSION. 193 

territorial division among the apostles can rest is a 
fragment of Hegesippus quoted by Eusebiiis, which says, 
that "James received the government of the Church 
along with the apostles.'' The acknowledged inaccuracy 
of this fragment in other particulars must abate or de- 
stroy its creed ; yet on its face, with full credit, there 
is no evidence that diocesan episcopacy was adopted 
three hundred years before its time in history. The 
fact that James appeared to be residing at Jerusalem 
when the council of apostles and elders met there (Acts 
XV.) is of no force for such a claim ; it only proves that 
he was there before others arrived. And many learned 
men among the ancients — Gregory of Nyssen, Clement, 
author of the Recognitions, Dorotheus and Michael Gly- 
cas — with Eusebius himself, believed that James, whom 
tradition makes the first bishop of Jerusalem, was one 
of the seventy whom our Lord had sent before him as 
he proceeded through the land of Judaea. But, even 
admitting that James the Apostle was first bishop of 
Jerusalem, it does not prove that the sublime and ubiq- 
uitous commissioners wdiom the ascendino; Head sent 
forth to all the world settled down everywhere in di- 
oceses to bear witness for him in corners, respectively, 
as soon as they could agree upon the boundaries. 

VI. Presbyters succeed the apostles in their work, 
all that can be done in the service of the gospel, since 
these extraordinary witnesses finished their testimony. 
The great work to be done lies, of course, on the face 
of the great commission to teach and baptize. Formali- 
ties of investiture, such as ordination, cannot be of equal 
importance, and must be at the best only means to this 
end, inferior in value and significance wherever it is 
held that man does not confer the ministry. What, 

13 



194 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

theu, are the reserved powers of apostolic dignity which 
descend to men of a higher order than presbyters? 
Separated from the word and sacraments, what do they 
inherit? A ceremony at most which has never been 
fairly defined, and which its advocates cannot agree in 
defining. And even could they agree and be able to 
demonstrate the ceremony to be superlative in value, 
what are the qualifications of the rank so empowered — 
the apostle-bishop distinguished from the presbyter- 
bishop? To the primitive qualifications of apostle 
they cannot pretend ; to the scriptural qualifications 
of a bishop they must give up a perfect equality with 
elders, as the Bible directs, most obviously ; yet with 
strange inconsistency they are compelled to read the 
qualifications of an elder as those of the diocesan bishop. 
No distinctive qualifications for such an office can be 
found in Holy Writ, and of course no scriptural warrant 
for the office. All that is divinely specified for the 
work of the ministry and its indispensable endowment 
being manifestly found in another channel descending, 
is it not fair to conclude that this one is empty, man- 
made and presumptuous? 

VII. It is impossible to make out a line of succes- 
sion through such apostle-bishops as a matter of his- 
torical deduction. Antecedent embarrassment in bridg- 
ing the interval between them and original apostles, for 
want of the name, the work and the qualifications of 
apostle, must be added to all the difficulties already 
specified in the Romish succession if that be the line 
preferred, as it is by the Tractarians of Oxford, and 
added to still greater difficulties if it be preferred, as it 
seems to be, by American prelates — some of them, at 
least — to trace their succession in England itself back to 



PRELATICAL SUCCESSION. 195 

the apostle Paul. That Paul or auy other apostle came 
to Great Britaiu has no historical foundation except the 
statement of Clemens Romanus that Paul traveled ^' to 
the utmost bounds of the West/' which Theodoret three 
hundred years afterward made out to mean Britain. 
This is the first link, and rather too long a suspense 
of history intervening to be plausible. But, granting 
that it was credibly ascertained, we find no continuous 
record to confirm the fact or to invite our faith in any 
succession to him; for every line was broken by the Dio- 
cletian persecution, which followed — burning the books, 
demolishing the temples and slaughtering every priest 
and every bishop in the province. And if any fragments 
of the chain escaped that fury, they must have been 
buried from the sight of Christendom when the Saxons 
came over and restored the reign of pagan idolatry for 
a hundred and fifty years. Rome replaced Christianity 
in England, but not without many a dubious fact in the 
course of ministerial succession. There was an ancient 
stream from North Britain which gives trouble to mi- 
tred antiquarians — a stream of presbyterian ordinations 
from the Culdees of lona — which the Venerable Bede 
confesses, and which became the fountain of ecclesias- 
tical power to many a prelate of England ; and then, 
through generations after, there was many an oversight 
or mistake in subsequent ordinations which, according 
to late learned exactness in the credentials of pedigree, 
must baffle the heraldry of modern apostles. Arch- 
bishop Parker, in the reign of Elizabeth, was conse- 
crated by four bishops who had been deposed in the 
reign of Bloody Mary and never restored, and for a 
while presbyters from Geneva and other parts of Con- 
tinental Europe, like Morrison, were admitted to full 



196 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

orders without reordi nation. And within the realm itself 
some of the most illustrious bishops and archbisho})s of 
the Anglican Church — Burnet, Butler, Seeker and Tillot- 
son — especially from Presbyterian and other dissenting 
homes, came into the Establishment without feeling the 
attraction of apostolic virtue there more than Cranmer 
did, or seeking confirmation to cure the defects of Puritan 
baptism — if, indeed, they had been baptized at all, for 
one of them, at least, is said to have been the son of an 
Anabaptist father, and probably was never baptized. 
Conformity has hardly ever failed to carry with it some 
anomaly into the so-called apostolic channel — either an 
excess in the form of intemperate zeal, which certainly 
did not characterize a genuine apostle, or an earnest nolo 
episGopari, which also never was known to be reluctant 
among the disciples whom Jesus " named apostles ;" for, 
like Paul, the true-hearted would instantly accept and 
"magnify'^ the office, and exclaim, ''Lord, what wilt 
thou have me to do?'^ Bishop Burnet refused the offer 
of a bishopric in Scotland because the diocesans there 
would not be parochial enough in the cure of souls nor 
live as proper examples to the flock; and when, at 
length, promoted to the see of Salisbury, he distinguished 
his ministry as eminently parochial in the diligence and 
minuteness of his visitation and the incessancy of his 
personal preaching and private exhortation. The Pas- 
toral Care, from his pen, as well as the practice of his 
life, evinces that any consciousness in him of apostolic 
tradition was in the parish pastor, etc., and the dio- 
cesan superiority came only from the State. So with 
Bishop Butler, whose Analogy distinguished him so 
greatly in the world of thought. AVhen King George 
II. appointed him to the deanery of St. PauFs, Lon- 



PRELATJCAL SUCCESSION. 197 

don, he declined tlie dignity, preferring to remain in his 
parish at Stanhope ; and when he was translated after- 
ward to the see of Durham, he accepted it as the gift of 
civil authority, not dreaming that it came to him in 
regular descent from the apostle Paul. Archbishop 
Seeker, without seeking or assuming anything more 
than the office of parochial bishop, was made by civil 
authority bishop of Bristol and of London, and then 
primate of all England, and had the rare privilege of 
anointing two heads of the Anglican Church in suc- 
cession — George II. and George III. — having received 
that primacy from the duke of Newcastle, who was at 
the head of the cabinet in the government of the king- 
dom. Prior to Seeker the accomplished Tillotson was 
archbishop of Canterbury, and is said to have done 
what he could to avoid the honor, accepting it with 
unfeigned reluctance at the bidding of a secular magis- 
tracy, and that, probably, to reward him for the only 
blot on his character — a vain attempt to extort from 
Lord Russell, on the scaffold, a declaration in favor of 
passive obedience to monarchy. Certainly, these great 
and good prelates never imagined apostolic virtues to 
stream on the sublimer currents of clerical promotion, or 
any other current of succession, than what Peter signi- 
fied when he wrote, " The elders which are among you 
I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the 
sufferings of Christ : feed the flock of God which is 
among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by con- 
straint, but willingly ; neither as being lords over God's 
heritage, but being ensamples to the flock." 1 Pet. v. 

American prelacy, being without any shade of theo- 
cratical establishment or mixture of Church and State 
making turbid or dubious the channel of descent, is 



198 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

obliged to make the most of apostolical signific^Dce in 
its vacuity and claims ; but the derivation is remark- 
ably peculiar. Bishop Seabury was ordained the first 
American prelate in 1784, but it was in Scotland, among 
the ^'non-juror'' ecclesiastics and where there is presump- 
tion of history that prelacy had its origin in presbytery, 
and as a stream it could rise no higher than the foun- 
tain. Besides, Burnet, though born and reared in Edin- 
burgh, declined a bishopric there on other and worse 
grounds. Consequently, doubts respecting the suffi- 
ciency of Seabury's consecration widely prevailed, al- 
though he went on to ordain and his ordinations were 
considered valid. The next three bishops, however, 
went to England together, for consecration — White, 
Madison and Prevoost — but there the prelates of the 
realm, strangely unconscious of apostolic prerogative in 
themselves, would do nothing of the kind without con- 
sent of the king and his legislature. Accordingly, it 
is said, an act of Parliament was procured allowing 
ordinations for the United States by warrant from His 
Majesty, and with a proviso that no bishop so conse- 
crated, and no priest or deacon ordained by him, should 
be allowed to exercise their functions within His Majes- 
ty's dominions. However much that legislation be now 
regarded as a dead letter, it is a formal tie which binds 
American prelacy to the succession of the past, and a 
solecism in the charter derived from our supreme and 
eternal Head, which is catholic without limitation and 
includes the twelve, the elders and the people together 
in that sublime behest, "All power is given unto me, 
in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all 
nations." 

The entire withdrawal of State support and polity 



PRELATICAL SUCCESSION. 199 

from ecclesiastical constitutions iu this country seems 
also to have doubled the stress with which prelacy leans 
on formulas of heredity and minute exactness of words 
and signs. When Bishops Hobart and Griswold were 
consecrated, in the early part of this century, it appears 
that certain words were omitted in the performance of 
the ceremonies, which gave rise to much animated and 
anxious debate and to considerable fear for the legitimacy 
of succession. A contemporaneous pamphleteer thus pub- 
lished the disturbance of his faith : " Suppose, then, at 
some future period, when the heat of passion is allayed, 
when calm reflection is suffered to be called into exercise, 
that then it shall be found and acknowledged that the 
considerations here advanced have weight, and that the 
consecration is attended with an essential defect ; what 
shall then be the state of our Church ? Our priesthood 
invalid, our succession lost ; numbers, under a show of 
ordination, ministering without authority, and the evil so 
extended as to be beyond the power of correction. ... I 
am seriously and conscientiously persuaded that the 
omission of the solemn words is material, that it is 
essential, that it rendere the whole form, besides, an 
utter nullity." Such are the incertitude and the hazard 
of diocesan succession beneath the light of modern ob- 
servation. 

And what must it have been through fifteen hundred 
years preceding, when the highest dignities of this kind 
in England were sold at times to the highest bidder, 
bestowed in popular tumult, or given by a profligate 
woman to her paramour or by a feudal baron to his 
kinsman? In the time of Alfred there was hardly a 
priest to be found south of the Thames who could read 
Latin or English ; and boys ten or twelve years old were 



200 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

invested with the ring and crosier, and the striplings, 
drunk or sober, would impart episcopal virtue to others 
of their own age or older. So it was — better and worse 
by turns — till the time of King Henry VIII., that cruel 
and licentious monarch who rudely arrested the old suc- 
cession and made himself henceforth the fountain of 
ecclesiastical ordinations. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE TRUE DOCTRINE OF SUCCESSION IN THE 
3IINISTRY. 

WHEN Luther supposed, in his constructive hypoth- 
esis, a company of church-members cast upon a 
desert island without a regular ministry to break the 
bread of life and dispense the ordinances of Christian 
worship, and without the prospect or the possibility of 
obtaining one, he asserted the competency of that forlorn 
community to choose one of their own number best 
qualified, in their judgment, for the sacred office, and 
to set him apart with any form of becoming solemnity. 
That ordination, he insisted, would be valid as much as 
if it were conferred by all the bishops in the world. 
This reveals to us a logical fairness in the mind of that 
great Reformer respecting the last commission of our 
Lord — that it was bestowed upon the whole Church, 
including the people, of course, as well as the eleven 
whom he charged as representatives. But this dotted 
line of Luther has been rubbed out by later theologians, 
not all of them prelatical, who seem to stickle for points 
of order more than for the substance or the proceeding 
itself, and he is charged by Dr. Samuel Hopkins with 
"begging the question" because the promise of our 
ascending Master to be with us alway, even to the end 
of the world, is so positive and potent in securing its 

201 



202 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

own fulfilment that such a case could never occur in the 
providence of God. 

Yet is there not much more a begging of the question 
in such presumption upon that precious promise, making 
it the bolster of a ceremony ? Think of our need of 
having Jesus with us in the perils and toils and contra- 
diction of sinners against us, the weakness and weari- 
ness, the reverses and despondency, the wants, the neces- 
sities, the distresses, the hopes, the adventures, the 
results — in short, everything — in the actual experience 
of ministers which the presence of Christ by his Spirit 
will succor and uphold rather than a mere ceremony 
of succession which at the most is only means to an end. 
A joint is important and useful, and ordinarily indispen- 
sable, but it occupies little or no space in the body. The 
juncture of one generation with another in office to con- 
tinue the order is precisely similar in relative value. It 
designates only transition ; and when made more than 
this, order is but obstacle. Surely, it is the arm, and not 
the elbow, that we stretch out in fighting the good fight 
of faith. It is the car itself, and not the coupler, which 
in the free course of the gospel carries that trained per- 
sonnel who go to gird the world with light and love. It 
is the great work of saving souls and building up God's 
people in their most holy faith which engages the per- 
petual presence of Jesus, with but little ceremony, and 
less of pedigree, when we are prepared and recognized 
at the entrance as called of God. 

The significant silence of our Lord himself on the 
method of succession when he meant this to be per- 
petual in the " alway '^ of his promise, not even hinting 
whether it should be visible or invisible, or neither, in- 
variably — whether its line should be continued at the 



THE TRUE DOC nil M-: OF SUtVKSSlON. 20^^ 

top or at the bottom of his building by the Spirit, the 
bishops or the people of his fokl, or by both together in 
action — should make us modest as we are loyal in dog- 
matizing at this impalpable point. Probably the ascend- 
ing Jesus, like his succeeding disciples through subse- 
quent time, who are apt to recall the usages of youth in 
religion and think how choice they were, though homely, 
when about to leave this world, thought of the syna- 
gogue at Nazareth w^here he was accustomed to worship 
with his parents, and other synagogues where he began 
and continued his own ministry on earth, as a model 
good enough for all time, with its freedom of franchise 
for the people, its deference to rulers, invitation to quali- 
fied teachers and preachers and readers of Scripture, its 
resiliency to the past and suitableness to the present and 
accommodation to the future of that one Church for 
which he suifered and died and would ever intercede. 
We dare to affirm that such characteristics as these, by 
whatever name we call the institute, are the interpreta- 
tion of his silence on the subject of succession. 

Almost equally silent were the apostles of Christ on 
the subject of ordination. Their example was also re- 
served ; and when they did either speak or act in the 
exercise of authority reposed in them, it was to repro- 
duce the synagogue in its norm of organization by the 
appointment of elders, making their succession to hinge 
on personal faithfulness and ability in the future, just as 
in the past, of the ecclesia. There is no record of one 
apostle officiating in ordination. The passage in 2 Tim. 
i. 6 (" Wherefore, I put thee in remembrance that thou 
stir up the gift of God which is in thee, by the putting 
on of my hands ") does not refer to ordination, but to 
the Pentecostal charism of extraordinary faith, such as 



204 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

characterized the apostolic age, as we see in the context. 
His grandmother and his mother, and Timotliy himself, 
shared such a gift, and it was usually bestowed by a lone 
apostle kiying on his hands. Acts xix. 6. But Timothy 
was " ordained with the laying on of the hands of the 
presbytery," as we shall notice again. 

It was only the return of sacerdotal mediation which 
began to make the mere ligature of succession a distinct 
and prominent thing in the attention of the Christian 
Church. It was when the names of priest, altar, sacri- 
fice, incense, vestments, processions, etc. — all the vocab- 
ulary of the old temple-service — became the aifectation 
of degenerate Christianity after the destruction of the 
Jewish State by Hadrian in the second century that the 
tie of one generation to another in office became signal 
and that genealogies became ethical and weighty, more 
than doctrines themselves. The whole tribe of Levi, as 
it were, seemed reinstated in the Church. Persons more 
than qualifications were considered, places more than 
missions, dignities more than ministries and ordination 
itself more than order, and soon transmuted to a sacra- 
ment of more intrinsic mystery than even baptism and 
the Lord's Supper. The two distinct lines of service in 
the old economy which Messiah came both to unify and 
to simplify were unified now by way of amalgam with 
all simplicity left out and much of Judaism and some- 
thing of paganism put in. And so the lump descended 
until the great Reformation. AVherever this revival 
could be developed fairly, without obstruction from the 
State, i\\Q following has been evinced as the consensus of 
Protestant Christianity on the subject of succession in the 
ministry. 

I. It is a measure of order which is relative, and not 



THE TRUE DOCTRINE OF SUCCESSION. 205 

absolute, in the necessity. Order is always frangible in 
proportion as it is high-strung, and order for the sake 
of order is self-<:lestructive. It is the beautiful symmetry 
and strenorth of our faith to have truth as the foundation 
and consistency as the plumb-line of all structure, and of 
duration too. When the apostle Paul discloses to the 
evangelist Timothy all that is couched in the mystery 
of ordination and succession, it is in these words (2 Tim. 
ii. 2): "And the things that thou hast heard of me 
among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faith- 
ful men, who shall be able to teach others also." He 
does not say "able to ordain others also," as he would 
have said if the grace of orders were a mystery to be 
handed on from one man to another, or the succession it 
effected were apostolical in its level or its height or grade 
of any kind. It is not the function, but the doctrine ; 
not the ruler, but the teacher ; not the circumstance of 
appointment, but the ability which conditions and de- 
serves it, — that the apostle manifestly indicates for the 
guidance of the Church in every age. Observe, on the 
face of this important passage, how faithfulness and 
ability are made so essential and paramount that we 
must understand them to be sufficient in themselves, 
with any kind of conventional agreement in the Church, 
for ever to constitute a valid transmission of her ministry. 
The injunction "Commit thou" expresses in the 
original the idea of trust confided, and this idea will 
associate in its notion wisdom, integrity, care, diligence, 
responsibility, — all to be considered in the recipient of a 
trust, whilst the regular form of handing it over is com- 
paratively of little importance. It should be noticed, 
also, that in a parallel place (1 Tim. vi. 20) the matter 
of trust is in the singular number : " O Timothy, keep 



206 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

that which is committed to thy trust." Here it is plural : 
"The thiugs that thou hast heard of me," etc. The 
kiud of trust iu both places must be the same — the 
gospel of the grace of God, the great facts in the life, 
death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the rule of 
faith and life in the Scriptures, the whole '^mystery of 
godliness " and the conversion of souls. These had 
now become a multiplied information abundantly au- 
thenticated to the knowledge and experience of Timothy, 
when he is instructed to ordain others in the way of en- 
trusting them to faithful and capable men. It is by no 
means a gratuitous comment on this comparison to say 
that ordination itself makes progress with the progress 
of the gospel and the education of its ministry, that suc- 
cession is an open secret and one of enlargement in its 
openness, that the increasing evidences of Christianity, 
"many witnesses," its widespreadiug triumph of mis- 
sionary enterprise and indirect benefaction to all human 
interests, and its ever-expanding field for the novitiates, 
devolve on successors to us now more " things " which 
are "most surely believed," more widely established, 
more abundantly furnished, than all the charges our 
own consecration contained. No sacrament in ordina- 
tion could make progress in this way. No one thing of 
earth could so multiply and develop itself in one genera- 
tion. No Timothy could be found to say that the laying 
on of the hands of the Presbytery now cannot purport 
more " things " of significance than were included in the 
charge at his own ordination. The formula of induction, 
of course, should remain without alteration, for the sake 
of regularity ; but assuredly the purport of such solemnity 
grows apace and in manifestation ; the plural is multi- 
plied, and succession must go on to thrive without 



THE TRUE DOCTRINE OF SUCCESSION. 207 

monopoly, and travel now to the end of the world 
without a ribbon on its trumpet or a vestment for its 
badge. There is no secreted virtue hid in succession. 
On the other hand, no lineage of succession whose ordi- 
nation is titular only can have a valid claim to preach, 
baptize and ordain, however derived and perfectly ru- 
brical in its legitimacy, without faithfulness and ability 
in the subject. Induction is a wicked presumption with- 
out supreme relation to these qualifications. And this 
relative measure of order is conceded by Palmer of 
Oxford in his exhaustive apology for the Church of 
England when he says in substance that no regularity 
of transmission which originates in heresy or schism can 
make a valid ministry. What vitiates a line at the be- 
ginning would spoil it also at the middle and anywhere 
along its course where entrance is made. No matter how 
true and how regular may be the beginning of a line, the 
lapse of its descent into heresy or into schism will invali- 
date the transmission and make succession void for want 
of faithfulness and ability in continuance ; so that there 
is no point of view at which these factors in ordination 
are not seen to be an absolute need, and that initial per- 
formance they justify as no more than a relative and 
secondary enactment. We must imagine the opus opera- 
turn of a sacrament in orders to make the form an abso- 
lute necessity — the technical firmer than the moral, the 
nominal and artificial supreme in its obligation after sub- 
stance and life have departed. 

II. This relative need of order in succession is ful- 
filled in that of presbyters, especially when charged as 
bishops having the oversight of particular flocks re- 
spectively. It is now universally conceded by the 
candid and intelligent churchmen of this age that 



208 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

Jerome of the fourth century was right in contending, 
that the Bible uses ^'bishop" and ''presbyter" in the 
same sense convertibly and continually, with this as the 
only shade of difference — that " presbyter " is called 
'' bishop " when charged with the oversight of a par- 
ticular church. All the early Fathers, from the time 
of the apostles to the First General Council, at Nice, 
A. D. 325, may be fairly construed as holding the same 
opinion. Toward the end of this period the parochial 
bishops began to claim superiority of rank over one 
another according to the importance of the particular 
churches they tended, especially the city churches over 
the country churches. But this was not in extent of 
jurisdiction until Church and State united and Con- 
stantine began to measure off the bishoprics to cor- 
respond with minor provinces of his empire. Then 
came into ecclesiastical parlance the word "diocese" — 
a term of merely civil and secular origin, expressing in 
its Greek etymon a territorial district parcelled out 
with special view to the financial economy in govern- 
ment. Of course, like other words, it could be Chris- 
tianized as it became convenient, but such adoption 
could never make it "apostolical" and "divine" with- 
out some sanction from inspiration of the Holy Ghost, 
such as Jesus breathed on his apostles. 

Ireuseus, bishop of Lyons and Vienne A. D. 177-202, 
born in Asia Minor, acquainted with Polycarp in his 
youth and regarded as the best pacificator of his age 
between the East and the West, in his celebrated work 
against heresies refers again and again to the true apos- 
tolical ministry as descending in the line of presbyters, 
elders — whom he denominates "bishops" interchange- 
ably — as the true integers of succession from the apos- 



THE TRUE DOCTRINE OF SUCCESSION. 209 

ties. In book iii. chap. 2 he says of heretics: "When 
we refer them to that tradition which originates from 
the apostles, and which is preserved by means of the 
successions of presbyters in the churches, they object to 
tradition, saying that they themselves are wiser than 
the apostles because they have discovered the unadul- 
terated truth." Then, hardly a page farther on, in the 
same book (chap. 3), we read these remarkable and 
memorable words, synoptical of all patristic literature 
on the subject of successiou, showing that it is simple 
history in its nature, without mystery or any hidden 
virtue descending: "It is in the power of all, therefore, 
who may wish to see the truth to contemplate clearly 
the tradition of the apostles manifested throughout the 
whole world, and we are in a position to reckon up 
those who were by the apostles instituted bishops in the 
churches and the successions of these men to our own 
times — those who neither taught nor knew of anything 
like what these rave about. For if the apostles had 
known hidden mysteries which they were in the habit 
of imparting to the perfect, . . . they would have de- 
livered them, especially to those to whom they were also 
committing the churches themselves. For they were 
desirous that these men should be very perfect and 
blameless in all things, whom also they were leaving 
behind as their successors, delivering up their own place 
of government to these men ; which men, if they dis- 
charged their functions honestly, would be a great boon ; 
but if they should fall away, the direst calamity." 

III. The actual tradition of the ministry since the 
day of the apostles, according to history which is au- 
thentic, will furnish no more than a substantial trans- 
mission of clerical order to any candid research. Iren- 

14 



210 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

sens, whom we have quoted as using the titles " elder '' 
and "bishop'^ precisely as the apostles did, coiivertihly 
and applied to the ministry that were immediate suc- 
cessors to them in the government and guidance of the 
Church, might count and name the presbyter-bishops 
in conspicuous positions for a century or more preceding 
his day, and might try to confute the heretics with such 
an exact tradition ; but farther on — a century later than 
his day — such tradition weakened to uncertainty, and 
Eusebius Pamphilius found it so confused and obscure 
that he resorted to conjecture in attempting to make out 
the chain, and his day was the date of new computa- 
tions for the future and the fable of diocesan bishops, 
believed in as the bishops of the Bible, and therefore 
to be regarded as true successors of the apostles. The 
overturning of both Church and State which followed, 
through the ages, the quarrels between Greek and Latin 
churches of Christendom, the darkness, confusion and 
illiteracy of the Middle Ages, the persecutions, irruptions, 
tumults and spiritual despotism which suppressed the pas- 
tors, quenched the lights and hid or destroyed the dip- 
tychs and memorials of the past, — these and other causes 
made it for ever impossible so to track the legitimate suc- 
cession of ministers anywhere as to fix our faith on lines 
or know the transmission of anything credible except, 
substantially, the continuance of faithfulness and ability 
among the witnesses for God, which, as we have seen, the 
apostles mentioned as the essence of succession to them. 

In the valleys of Piedmont and Languedoc, as well 
as elsewhere in the isles and fastnesses of Western 
Europe, we have well-authenticated succession of peo- 
ples and teachers — if not by name and particular place, 
yet who by faithful adherence to gospel truth and 



THE TRUE DOCTRINE OF SUCCESSION. 211 

ability in witness-bearing realized the faithfulness and 
the ability of Him who had promised to be with them 
alway. On the other hand, if we could recover from 
oblivion every name and every ordination since the 
time of the apostles in the lines of so-called Catholic 
churches, Greek and Latin, Anglican and American, we 
would have to test their canonicity by the charge of 
Paul to Timothy (" Commit thou to faithful men, who 
shall be able to teach others also "), or we must reject 
them as no matter at all of faith which never can 
repose on genealogies or any regime of pedigree as more 
than husks between our confidence and the substantial 
nutriment they have so often hidden from the eye of 
faith. 

IV. The last great commission of our Saviour (Matt, 
xxviii. 19, 20), which has called into existence a Chris- 
tian ministry from age to age, must be supposed to bear 
upon its face the cardinal points of the minister's errand, 
and above the tenor and the plane of the office it confers 
there is nothing higher, holier or more potential for this 
ministry to seek than missionary-going — preaching the 
word, administering the sacraments and practical injunc- 
tion upon men of what he has commanded ourselves to 
observe. If in these categories there be couched any- 
thing more than they subtend, it must be, surely, of 
subordinate value, for these are the greatest things of 
his kiugdom, and anything else must be subsidiary, as 
means to an end or as accident to substance.' By virtue 
of "all power" in himself he made this memorable 
utterance without a hint of reconstructing power in 
apostles themselves or their successors beyond the 
pledge of his own presence with them "alway.'' The 
power of the keys, opening and shutting, binding and 



212 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

loosing, with which they were already invested when he 
breathed npon them and bade them receive the Holy 
Ghost, may be comprehended fairly in the proper ad- 
ministration of sacraments, receiving the penitent and 
worthy and excluding the impenitent and unworthy. 

But in these latter days we are called to notice another 
commission which is implied, it is alleged, in John xx. 
51 : '^As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." 
This has become a frequent, if not an ordinary, text at 
the consecration of apostle-bishops — that is, bishops in 
the diocesan sense, higher in rank than parochial or 
presbyter-bishops. Without impatiently rejecting such 
an application of these divine words for the arrogance 
and apparent impiety of such interpretation claiming 
that any order of men may stand for Christ as he stands 
for God the Father in sending, we need only see that the 
particle " as '' in the passage must be a similitude between 
the parties sending, and not the parties sent — between 
God the Father and God the Son, and not between the 
Son of God and mitred worms of the dust in any exercise 
of authority. When Ave turn back a little in the same 
Gospel to xvii. 18, we read tlie intercessory prayer of 
Christ, not only for his immediate disciples already be- 
lieving on him, but for all others given to him to be re- 
deemed who would come to believe on him through the 
word to be preached in the gospel ; we see the same 
particle of similitude " as,'' expressing beyond all ques- 
tion the relation between the parties sending, and not at 
all between the parties sent, in the sense of rank and 
similarity of power, except in the universal priesthood 
of all believei-s : ^^As thou hast sent me into the world, 
even so have I sent them into the world." 

Y. The inferiority of ceremony to substance or a 



THE TRUE DOCTRINE OF SUCCESSION. 213 

formal ordination to the faithfnlness and the ability 
which deserve its recognition may be illustrated in the 
history of a distinct class of disciples between apostles 
and elders, properly styled " the ministry of gifts," 
which may be traced through all biblical history of the 
Church, and perhaps "alway, even to the end of the 
world." Like the apostles, this ministry — including 
prophets and evangelists, at least — begau without any 
form of ordination and tarried like them at Jerusalem 
until they would be endued with power from on high. 
Power came from the Holy Ghost, according to the 
promise of our Lord, immediately, in the form of gifts 
or charisms which de facto commissioned them to speak 
with other tono^ues than their own the wonderful works 
of God. This many-tongued ministry went forth, in- 
cluding male and female missionaries — the men to preach 
with full authority and the women to pray and prophesy 
with veiled heads and faces ; the men to supplement the 
apostolic office in the capacity of prophets and evangelists 
and messengers, the women to aid the ministry of orders 
as exigences would call them, to help in private and 
social teaching and adapting a diaconate to the wants 
of humanity then. Even the condensed annals of in- 
spiration make illustrious a number of these devout 
men and women who composed the ministry of gifts — 
Barsabas, the candidate with Matthias for the vacancy 
made by the fall and death of Judas, Ananias of Damas- 
cus, Apollos, Aquila and Priscilla, Barnabas, " men of 
Cyprus and Cyrene," evangelizing Antioch and giving 
there the name of Christian to the Church, Philip and 
his four " prophesying daughters," Stephen, the first 
martyr, who was said to be ^^ full of faith and of the 
Holy Ghost" when elected by direction of the apostles 



214 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

to siiperiDteiid the deacons, and was so admitted to an 
office in the ministry of orders. 

Much more might be gleaned in sacred history of the 
great service to Christ and his ecclesia, both the old and 
the new, by this intermediate and supplemental order in 
Church economy, which never had a norm of ordination 
from the hands of men, or other designation to a holy 
calling than possession of the special and heavenly gift. 
In Old-Testament times the stated instructor in the syna- 
gogue, whether priest or Levite or elder, would give 
place to any one who came along " in the spirit and dem- 
onstration of a prophet'^ to teach and preach to the 
ordinary assembly ; and this usage was evidently con- 
tinued in the New-Testament time, accounting for the 
freedom of our Lord, and of his apostles after him, to 
teach and to preach in the synagogue before its actual 
conversion to Christianity. Thus the ecclesiastical insti- 
tute of the Bible entertained in both economies a ministry 
of peculiar and extraordinary endowment whose cre- 
dentials were neither parchment nor the laying on of 
hands, but the true substance of all ordination — endow^- 
ment by the Spirit of God with adequate ability and 
loyal faithfulness to the trust of truth. 

Here we may well observe that it was always sup- 
plemental to the two conspicuously-appointed minis- 
tries — that of apostles, who were extraordinary and 
transient, and that of elders, who were ordinary and 
permanent. Whilst the former were in the field the 
charisms of Pentecost supplied them with prophets and 
evangelists who were so eminently helpful to the aposto- 
late — the one class expounding the law and the prophets 
as luminously fulfilled in the history of Jesus, predicting 
the future, also, in so far as the forecast would be for the 



I 



THE TRUE DOCTRINE OF SUCCESSION. 215 

furtherance of the gospel and the safety of believers ; 
the other class, evangelists, acting as deputy apostles in 
laying the foundations of the Church in barbarous coun- 
tries and in adjusting its primordial organizations every- 
where. On the other hand, auxiliary to the ministry 
of orders, we see on the sacred page how lustrous the 
gifts of Philip and Stephen made ordination, even to 
the humble vocation of serving tables, which they had 
assumed in superintendence at the bidding of the people. 
So much did the shiuins: 2:ifts of two out of " the seven '' 
exalt the deacon's office, and, of course, honor its ordina- 
tion, that soon in subsequent history the bishops, finding 
associated elders an obstruction to their progress of am- 
bition, took into their confidence and favor the deacons 
and elevated the whole order to the rank of preachers, 
multiplying the one lowly deaconship by three — sub- 
deacons, deacons and archdeacons. This extravagance, 
though without warrant, is evidence in history that the 
drift of a ministry without ordination is toward the en- 
hancement of orders instead of being adverse to them. 
Being supplementary in its usefulness to the permanent 
as well as the transient ministries appointed by our Lord, 
the fair presumption is that this ministry of gifts will 
continue its opportune returning till the end of time. 
The glorious ministration of the Spirit must ever be 
free, sovereign and unsearchable. Compared to the 
wind, which ^' bloweth where it listeth,'' is the " resi- 
due '' — or, as we say familiarly, the reserve — of might 
and good pleasure which he retains in the dispensation 
of gifts. Variety has always distinguished his agency 
alike in garnishing the heavens and in starring the 
churches on earth. Doubtless the Holy Ghost will 
uphold the regularity of ordination as it is defined in 



216 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

his own word, estimating qualifications more than per- 
sons and substance more than ceremony, ability and 
faithfulness more than their inauguration itself in office; 
but it may be his pleasure to dispense with ordination 
altogether when it pretends too much. When, being 
aggrieved by the emulations of Christian men aspiring 
to the dignity of office for its own sake, he left ordina- 
tion in their hands to work out its own traditions, how 
quickly did it compromise the substance of which it was 
a symbol ! In the time of Ignatius the ordained pres- 
byter-bishop was only primus inter pares ; in the time 
of Irenseus, a century later, he was the centre and de- 
positary of orthodox truth ; another century on, in the 
time of Cyprian, he was a vicegerent for Christ him- 
self: "the Church is built upon the bishops " as well as 
upon the apostles themselves ; then came diocesan bishops 
to supersede and to suppress all presbyter-bishops, mo- 
nopolizing apostolic virtue and making ordination in 
itself a sacramental rite; and now may not ordination 
itself be suspended on account of such perversion, and 
the gospel have a free course without it for a time or 
times until it be reformed ? It would be an irreverent 
presumption for us to conjecture how the Spirit of truth 
and holiness will restore succession throughout Christen- 
dom to the simplicity and the significance of its original 
prescription by Paul to Timothy; but facts in modern 
times and the times of our own generation constrain us 
to believe that a ministry of gifts without formal ordi- 
nation at all is now and then sent into the field for this 
very purpose of teaching the world what succession 
ought to be in its main prerequisites of spiritual and 
superior gifts imparted to the faithful. We need not 
mention the names of lay-evangelists who by speech 



I 



THE TRUE DOCTRINE OF SUCCESSION. 217 

and song at this day attract millions in America and in 
Europe to the preaching of the gospel and its becoming 
melodies, nor the names of renowned theologians, erudite 
masters, ecclesiastical dignitaries, artists, scientists, phi- 
losophers and learned professors of every kind who have 
hung on the lips of these ambassadors with delight and 
profit, recognizing a call by '^the common people, who 
hear them gladly," as indicating that of the Holy Ghost, 
with silent approbation and wonder. 

And what are the results of this phenomenal ministry 
to be gathered up already ? Not by any means what 
was feared at the beginning — that this following of un- 
ordained men would unsettle the whole mystery of 
induction to the sacred office, cheapen the succession, 
disparage the solemnity of its vows and level to the 
dust the safeguards of clerical right and authority in 
the premises. The reverse of all such apprehension 
has been realized. The true doctrine of succession was 
never so well understood, nor the insignificance of form 
and routine compared with the superlative value of 
substance in head and heart together, ability and faith- 
fulness conjoined and the immediate impulse of the 
Holy Spirit, as it would seem, abiding with his people 
to renovate prescriptions of his word and require them 
to be honored in the spirit as well as in the letter of the 
ministry, and as a trust more than as a heritage. Prep- 
aration for the ministry has been elevated and enlarged, 
theological seminaries crowded more than ever and post- 
graduates returning to prolong and extend the training 
of gifts and the acquisition of resources for the work 
of the faithful. The stiifest conservatism, also, has 
been mobilized in many places, and good men, emerging 
from the chancel, have proceeded through aisles, transept 



218 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

and portals with familiar Avords of exhortation, without 
a book in hand, to reach the hearts of inquiring and 
impenitent men. These results, whether or not due 
entirely to the adventure of exceptional gifts for the 
ministry through this and other lands at the present 
time, should satisfy all observing men that such a mis- 
sion is not a meteor, to make wonder and disturbance 
in its passage, but a salutary and refreshing breeze to 
every pulpit, blowing only form away and making 
more fragrant than ever the substance of regular suc- 
cession, faithfulness and ability combined. 

Indeed, consequences to the Church other than aux- 
iliary and supplemental to regularity of form derived 
from the Scriptures would prove that such a movement 
of rare gifts must be challenged as self-sent rather than 
as sent by the Holy Ghost. He is never the author of 
confusion or of doubt or of indifference to rules of his 
own origination. FroAvning only on the superstitious 
excess of bondage to rules themselves, and grieved at 
the letter when the spirit is gone, he reserves for his 
abode in the Church the polity of exceptional refreshing 
and the sovereignty of working with or without a visi- 
ble instrumentality on which we count, and correcting 
our calculations by surprising them with new develop- 
ments of his own power and the stability of nothing 
chartered by man for which he has not given his own 
word of inspiration. Long, therefore, as there will be 
a standing ministry of regular ordination in the Church, 
there will be watching by the eternal Spirit to keep it 
clean, simple, substantial and true, or to winnow, test 
and restore it by an improvised ministry of gifts with- 
out ordination at all except the impulse of his own 
breathing and the term at his own recall. 



I 



CHAPTER IX. 

PERMANENT OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 

THE ministry of orders are the permanent officers. 
The summary distinction of these given in Scripture 
(Phil. i. 1) is " bishops and deacons." The former is 
twofold, consisting of those that have oversight in both 
preaching and ruling, and those in ruling only or chiefly. 
The latter is also twofold in the distinction of male and 
female comprised in the one word "deacon," which is 
both male and female in the original term. There is no 
reckoning of era in the permanency of spiritual office : 
past, present and future must be all one duration for the 
ecclesia, which is just an expression of God's eternal 
purpose. 1 Pet. i. 2. A second essential idea in per- 
manence must be regulation of order, the formal in 
organization, which is recognized in the appointed solem- 
nity of ordination. A third conception of this per- 
manency nuist be the subsidiary nature of all that is 
extraordinary in the history of redeniption. The tes- 
timony of apostles, on which the Church is built, serves 
like a foundation to support the permanency of her 
structure " fitly joined together." The witnessing and 
working ministry of gifts corroborated that testimony 
and worked out the re-establishment of permanent order 
as a task assigned to them by apostles : " For this cause 
left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the 
things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, 
as I had appointed thee," wrote Paul to Titus. 

219 



220 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

But extraordiDary gifts are not all supernatural or 
belonging to one epoch of spiritual Christianity, as we 
have already noticed. There is a natural side of sanc- 
tified endowment not commissioned by man and not 
recognized by his induction with hands laid on. The 
actuating impulse of the Holy Ghost may at the sover- 
eign pleasure of his wisdom send, without formality, 
rare abilities, exceptional and opportune, to vivify the 
formal and resettle the settled and stir the lethargy of 
habit with new awakening and heartfelt return to the 
old simplicity of the gospel. Obviously, the need and 
aim of such evangelism, when it is genuine, mu.^t be, as 
we have intimated already, to enhance the value and 
appreciate the stability of all inspired ordinations in 
Scripture. Otherwise, if these lay evangelists become 
radical enthusiasts, disparaging the ministry of orders, 
dispensing with ordination on purpose, building churches 
for themselves, claiming ^* the keys " to open and to shut 
with ritual authority, and handling as they please and 
where they please the instituted symbols of our faith — 
baptism and the Lord's Supper — then we challenge the 
reality in them of a divine legation by the Spirit of 
God, and turn away from self-sent emissaries who mar 
the gospel of the kingdom with envy, disturbance and 
strife in the long run. 

Here the New-Testament ministry of orders must 
appear the standard and umpire and determination in 
"discerning spirits" till the end of time. The disloy- 
alty which would supersede their seat after gaining their 
ear, and rival their cathedral with tabernacles for the 
multitude around, and claim the gospel of the kingdom 
as unofficial in the propagation and sent by those who 
send themselves, as well without as with the representa- 



PERMANENT OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 221 

live commission which has the promise, " I am with 
you alway even unto the end of the world," — must he 
ephemei*al as the morning cloud and flower of the grass. 
Good may be gathered into the barns, many of the 
saved may be added to the Church, by such impro- 
vised evangelism, but it is a meteor, and there is no 
continuance available as a churchly institute. A re- 
freshing breeze cannot be localized and fixed without 
stagnation and malaria to be engendered. The extra- 
ordinary, which is not needed, cannot become ordinary 
without renouncing its own justification in coming upon 
the Church self-sent and unordained. The credentials 
which exceptional gifts confer alone expire in the dis- 
content of an evangelist who would do more than his 
proper w^ork. 

In the primitive time a special ministry of gifts did 
exchange, in many instances, no doubt, their itinerating 
errand for a settlement in some particular charge or care, 
and, doing so, entered into orders with regular ordina- 
tion. Thus, Philip and Stephen, when chosen to the 
oversight of deacons, were admitted to the order in 
formal ordination. Barnabas and Saul, likewise — 
though the latter was called to be an apostle — were 
separated by the Holy Ghost and the divine command 
to a special missionary-work in Asia Minor, and were 
ordained for it by the Presbytery of Antioch. So 
the most prominent of the apostles — Peter and John, 
for example — would emphasize in their Epistles the 
elder, couched in their apostleship. " Who am also an 
elder," said the one ; " The elder to the elect lady," said 
the other. The trend, therefore, of apostles and of 
apostolic men of supernatural gifts was directly and 
constantly toward the eldership as a regular succession. 



222 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

The extraordinary, wlien supernatural, came to make 
the ordinary more important and permanent; and shall 
the extraordinary, when it is but natural endowment, be 
allowed to drift in -the opposite direction, disparaging 
the ordinary as perfunctory dulness, sneering at ordina- 
tion as an idle ceremony, and reducing at length the 
transient itinerancy which goes without ordination to 
the rival fixedness of another denomination? Such a 
genesis of natural gifts cannot be read in the natural 
history of permanent office. 

But we do read of a standing ministry in each par- 
ticular church remaining as a permanent change in the 
condition of Christian orders — so much, indeed, that 
the name "church,'' as we have seen, became narrow 
enough to denote a local assemblage of worshipping 
believers, though ever wide enough, also, to express the 
kingdom of heaven itself upon the earth in its organ- 
ization, multiform as this might be in the unity of co- 
operation. In the old dispensation there was no dis- 
tinctive ministry of the word localized and fixed in one 
particular habitation. The nearest approach to a stand- 
ing ministry in settlements then was in the forty-eight 
stations of Levitical distribution over the land for 
the purposes of national instruction, making the tribe 
itinerant, more or less, among the families of Israel. 
Elders of the synagogue waited for the Levite or the 
prophet to come along, and officiated in the service of 
instruction only when itinerants failed to appear ; so it 
seems to have been for some twenty years in the open- 
ing history of New-Testament organizations. 

But when, at length, the miraculous outfit of Chris- 
tianity was done, apostles, prophets and evangelists hav- 
ing finished their work of immediate witnessing and 



PERMANENT OEFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 223 

fulfilment of prophecy and inditing canonical inspira- 
tion, the incidental task of teaching, which had always 
pertained to the elders' bench, became the mighty burden 
of our Master's great commission devolving on the 
elders everywhere " to teach all nations." The press- 
ure of this great command must do what vast responsi- 
bility of any kind will always do — produce division of 
labor and multiply the varieties of function in the 
exercise of office. "Who is sufficient for these things?'' 
Even the apostles, " endued with power from on high," 
had to call for help in '^diffi^rences of ministration" 
and "diversities of operation" and "all utterance" 
which the selfsame Spirit that armed them with super- 
natural force did work in all other disciples, male and 
female, of that original band ; and when the mightiness 
of miracle at length departed, leaving the great com- 
mission on a representative eldership whose natural 
abilities had been trained in governing and directing 
only or chiefly, shall we have no division of labor any 
more to be recognized among the officers divinely ap- 
pointed ? 

Go to the government at Washington and survey the 
multitude of divided and subdivided industries — depart- 
ments, bureaus, scribes, almost innumerable — which are 
indispensable auxiliaries of the grand episcopacy in 
State that governs the nation ; return, after an interval 
of one decade, and see how much increased the number 
and the variety of the functions become as the nation 
spreads her occupation of the continent. We have here 
a fair analogy of the effisct which our vast commission 
on the Church to spread her gos})el occupation over all 
the world must have in dividing and subdividing her 
multiplied instrumentalities in the ministry of orders. 



224 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

Take, for example, that one qualification of the pres- 
byter-bishop who is familiarly called "elder'' — ^^apt to 
teach." 1 Tim. iii. 2. We see in the original term so 
rendered indefinite extension of meaning — public, social, 
family, private, teaching — and that both active and 
passive, teaching and teachable. Accordingly, we see 
now through some ten Boards of administration, man- 
aged by ministers and elders, the labor subdivided which 
the Church is required by the great commission of her 
Lord to undertake for the conversion of the world. 
And even all these, with their chairmen, secretaries, 
treasurers and agents, are but one branch in the vast 
ramification of sacred toil. We must contemplate the 
pulpit, the press, the school, the seminary, the college, 
for another host at work under the great pressure of the 
Saviour's ascending behest, and these distinctions multi- 
plied as the work goes on to prosper in the sublime 
evolution of practical wisdom itself. 

Why, then, should we be hindered at the very begin- 
ning, and on the inspired page itself, by the artifice of 
criticism, from receiving and establishing a division of 
labor on the elders' bench which was inevitable as the 
promise of perpetual presence by our Master was sure ? 
When the ministers of " gifts " were withdrawn, all the 
elders ordained could not preach, though they could 
teach in the family and " rule well " in their traditional 
authority for this function. When such of them as had 
the ability and the desire to assume the great super- 
venient commission to preach at home or abroad, they 
were designated accordingly by their fellow-elders, with 
consent of the people, and doubtless with some solem- 
nity of form in ordination to indicate their separation 
from others to a ministry of the word which was to be 



PERMANENT OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 225 

all-engrossing in its duties. Here, then, is the first 
division of labor by the weight of an imperative gospel 
devolved on the eldership of all dispensations, engaging 
some to teach mainly and to rule enough also to sustain 
this teaching with proper authority, engaging others to 
remain as they were at ruling chiefly, and teaching the 
rudiments of religion enough to sustain the claims of 
their function as Christian rulers. The lowly rulers of 
the ecclesia who had for ages been really ^^ servants of 
all '' in looking out for teachers to be invited or allowed 
from time to time are now to be made apostolic teachers 
themselves along with ruling, and remain in their places 
until the divine Spirit would move them to go else- 
where. Others of them, unable or unwilling to be 
given wholly to preach and propagate the gospel, would 
abide in their old calling. Not a shred of diocesan 
episcopacy came from apostolic hands, as we shall see 
again more exactly. Apostles made elders ; the people 
made bishops. Apostles prescribed the qualifications to 
be discriminated in their choice ; the people controlled 
the choice by suffrage in the respective localities, and 
thus came the title of " bishop ^^ in distinction which 
the elder chosen gained by votes of the people and his 
fellow-presbyters, and which denoted only the oversight 
of a parish with the ordination of an elder. 

In devolving on a bench of elders the paramount and 
permanent office of teaching and preaching, parochial 
episcopate and itinerant evangelism included, we must 
contemplate the comparative inadequacy of officers who 
had been chosen only for their practical wisdom in man- 
aging men and things, who, in the majority of persons, 
would probably be unlearned or lack the oratorical power 
to persuade men. And, standing at the close of miracles 

15 



226 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

in laying the foundations of the Church and extending 
her limits, the departure of apostles and withdrawal of 
miraculous gifts would altogether dismay an ordinary 
eldership habituated only to serve in ruling under a 
ministry of gifts. But an obvious expedient was at 
hand, natural, reasonable and inevitable, the classifica- 
tion of elders — some called to teach and preach in public 
because of suitable endowments, and to be called, prop- 
erly, "teaching elders,'^ and the others, remaining at 
their post, to be called '^ ruling elders/' Yet the 
preachers were not to be excluded from rule nor the 
residuary class of rulers from private or social teaching 
as capacity and occasion might warrant. Thus the two 
classes would coalesce and co-operate, and their meeting 
together in council would make a Presbyterian Session. 

Permanency of the Teaching Elder. 
No office among: men has ever been desiocnated by so 
many different names as that of the Christian minister 
whom the apostles named '^ elder '' and " bishop." The 
tracing of its functions through Holy Scripture will dis- 
cover two kinds in the nomenclature — the adjective and 
the metaphorical, the former, of wider significance, de- 
noting the nature of the office in general, such as bishop, 
elder, messenger, minister, preacher and teacher; the 
latter, of special and deeper significance, denoting with 
the force of analogy some one characteristic, such as 
ambassador, angel, builder, pastor, ruler, soldier, stew- 
ard, workman. All these, but never priest (^hpeu^). 
This name belongs only to the officei*s of an unfinished 
religion — one of types and shadows. It has lost all 
official import in the Christian system since the actual 
advent and sacrifice of our eternal Higli Priest himself 



PEBMAl^ENT OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 227 

It is now of commou use again, attaclied to all true 
believers, of both dispensations, before and after an 
Aarouical priesthood, Moses and Peter both affirming. 
(1 Pet. ii. 9 compared with Ex. xix. 6.) The compres- 
sion of " presbyter '^ into this word " priest '^ ever since 
the sarcasm of Milton — "presbyter is only priest writ 
large" — has been discussed by scholars, though retained 
in Anglican forms, and is obsolete in all churches where 
there is no Judaism of literal altar and sacrifice to be 
consistent. The long list of names we gather in the 
New Testament for the Christian minister indicates 
abundantly the value and sufficiency of this office for 
the use of the Church in all the ends of her mission 
while time endures, and makes the presumption, there- 
fore, that it must be a standing ministry, permanent as 
it is important — a relative necessity always, transmitting 
itself in the culture of piety and knowledge ever advan- 
cing in the future. 

The permanency of this office may be considered in 
a threefold aspect — the office itself, continued till the end 
of the world ; the tenure of it, till the end of life ; and 
the duration of a bishopric in the pastoral relation, fixed 
as long as the Spirit and the providence of God will 
favor a continuance. 

1. The office itself is abiding, and it is important that 
we pause a little to justify what seems to be self-evident 
in its nature — a standing ministry as a distinct order of 
men invested by the authority of Christ with the ordi- 
narily exclusive right to dispense the ordinances of 
divine appointment. Not only does the mystic enthusi- 
asm of the Quaker still insist that no formulated ministry 
is needed, but other sectaries of new denomination arise 
along with a philosophic radicalism diffused by Neander 



228 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

to antagonize the extremes of popery and prelacy, and to 
reduce clerical orders from traditional ordination at the 
hands of those already in office to a merely conventional 
division of labor in the Church at the hands of the 
people themselves, without representation. We must 
argue against the discontinuance of an official ministry 
conferred in regular succession. 

(1) The promise annexed to the great commission 
" Lo I am with you alway," etc., assuredly indicates 
durability in office. The apostles, we have seen, com- 
mitting their trust to others, left the stage long since, 
and, unless the Church and the world be entirely changed, 
in the condition of human nature there must be continued 
the same instrumentality that was inaugurated at their 
departure. With significant regard for succession, Peter 
and John, the apostles, defined themselves, in different 
forms of expression, as elders also, combining with the 
extraordinary capacity of original witnesses the ordinary 
office of ruling in the Church that was ever to continue 
inseparable from preaching the word and discipling all 
nations. It is not the extraordinary and transient, but 
the ordinary and permanent, which inherits the fulfil- 
ment of that ubiquitous and everlasting promise uphold- 
ing the ministry. Until, at least, all men have been 
baptized and indoctrinated to a degree of adequate en- 
lightenment and obedience to the faith this burden of 
the Saviour devolves to evoke and ordain the teaching 
elder. To dispense with such an order now, or at any 
time before the consummation, is to condemn the original 
investiture as unwise or devoid of the forecast with 
which, it is admitted, even uninspired men may provide 
institutions lasting as time. 

(2) The diction of catalogues given us by inspiration, 



PER.yAyEyT officers of the ciiurcji. 2'1\) 

ill wliicli oll'ifos ami ('unctions arc minutely tU'tailod, 
covering all time and mingling together extraordinary 
and ordinary officers, miraculous endowment and com- 
mon expediency, must always leave upon the mind of a 
candid reader a sense of ])erpetuity resulting from that 
profusion of ascension-gifts at the initial crisis of a 
kingdom ^'ordered iii all things." The two most com- 
plete, if not exhaustive, enumerations are found iu 1 Cor. 
xii. 28 and Eph. iv. 11. The former gives the chief 
ministry thus : " God hath set some in the Church, first 
apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers," the con- 
nective particles ibllowing, ^' after that" and ''then," de- 
tailing other functionaries under abstract terms indicat- 
ing manifold uses in the Church, natural and super- 
natural. The other passage cited is, "And he gave some, 
apostles ; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists ; and 
some, pastors and teachers ; for the perfecting of the saints, 
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body 
of Christ." The fair conclusion from both quotations 
must be that " pastors and teachers " remain the appoint- 
ment by divine authority — a selection, also, by the Head 
of the Church — "some," not all the people alike, " some" 
qualified and consecrated to "the work of the ministry." 
(3) The errand of extraordinary officers in the forma- 
tion of a Christian Church was to found a perpetual 
testimony and furnish ordinary officers, unlike them- 
selves in being permanent, as they were transient. 
Apostles and evangelists were confessedly engaged in 
laying foundations for the fiitui-e and in building on a 
rock the structure which He wIkj is the same yesterdav, 
to-day and for ever called "my Church." These eldei's, 
beyond a (jiK'-tioii, were the tcadiei's \\u'V left to abide. 
Xo other way of iiiiiii-lral ion i< hinted, nor change, nor 



230 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

grade, nor level, nor end. If, indeed, apostles have not 
passed away, but have transmitted their own ecclesiasti- 
cal rank to a line of successors in authority, then our 
inference here is nothing ; for the power de]>uted orig- 
inally to provide a standing ministry, being extant and 
predominating still, may shift the organization made 
at first, suppress the eldership at pleasure, exalt the 
deacon, exclude the people and make all things un- 
certain. 

(4) The unity of the Church, through all dispensa- 
tions identical, needs a living institute as well as a 
canonical word to thread her form through all genera- 
tions. None but the office of presbyter can do this. 
The patriarchal, the Levitical, the Christian, as chief, 
the Greek, the Latin, the Reformed, in lines of sub- 
division, have all thus far had the elder, of some name, 
as an integral factor of government in some degree, and 
the presumption is fair that the Angel of the covenant 
is with this office till the end of the world. We hear 
it claimed in these days that no creed or doctrinal 
basis can be formed to reunite Christianity, and that we 
should look to a certain external form of government 
as the only band of unification that is practicable and 
expedient ; but if the polity proposed has repressed the 
eldership, teaching and ruling, and substituted the di- 
ocesan for a centre, it has lost the connection of Church 
visibility in Scripture, preferred Nicene to Bil)le Chris- 
tianity and broken the link of New-Testament with 
Old-Testament ecclesia; and the claim is preposterous. 

(5) It belongs to the analogy of grace in its kingdom 
on earth to be magnified by visible inadequacy of means, 
and therefore to intrust the treasure of saving truth by 
which the world is discipled to some earthen vessels 



PEEMANENT OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 231 

which stand midway iu representation between monar- 
chic authority and the multitude governed. Reserved 
to the former, the world might reckon that an absolute 
unity of administration will explain the perpetual con- 
servation of Christianity. Deposited with the latter, 
men would suppose they are naturally religious beings, 
and that the gospel of this kingdom descends by the 
force of sentiment in the bosom of humankind. But 
the constitution of a few, without concentration on the 
one hand and without diifusion on the other, conveys 
through all succeeding time the presence of a divine 
Head by his Spirit, whose power alone sustains an in- 
strumentality so fragile and makes "the foolishness of 
preaching" "the wisdom of God and the power of 
God'' in the salvation of men. Thus the surviving 
miracle of a supernatural preservation of our hope in 
Christ, despite the weakness, folly and disunion of 
his own adherents and heralds, will remain till "time 
shall be no longer" iu the publication of his grace. 

(6) The analogy of tradition also demands an order 
of live successors in its trinity of safe and adequate 
transmission. The written document and the parental 
relation have never sufficed for such transmission, even 
when the former was plain and the latter most faithful, 
as under the Old-Testament economy. Then the -priest's 
lips had to keep knowledge, and the people had to learn 
the law at his mouth. How much greater that, neces- 
sity now, when the inspired documents have become a 
magazine which all sciolism seeks to corrupt or impugn, 
and the family has become loosened by unrestricted 
affinities and world-wide commerce ! Without presby- 
ters now and ever to shed the mystery of godliness from 
educated lips and in language understood by the people, 



232 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

the "established testimony and appointed law" might be 
lost or hidden to the children of generations to come. 

(7) The instructions given to elders indicate the per- 
manency of their office. The charges, the duties, the 
qualifications, alike involve the indefinite succession : 
"The things which thou hast heard of me, among 
many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, 
who shall be able to teach others also." This definite 
selection is evidently concerned for a future which is 
undefined. The qualifications elsewhere detailed more 
minutely, and suggesting the duties devolved on suc- 
cessors, all imply succession while time endures. See 
Tit. i. 6-9, where, identifying elders with bishops, 
the apostle anticipates, with a prevision of Christian 
life which no perfection of culture can ever transcend 
and no exigences of the faith can ever give up, the 
becoming accomplishments of an elder's adaptation : 
" If any be blameless ; the husband of one wife ; hav- 
ing children not accused of riot or unruly; not self- 
willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, 
not given to filthy lucre, a lover of hospitality, a lover 
of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; holding fast 
the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may 
be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and to con- 
vince the gainsayers." 

(8) The necessities of the Church as a society require 
a standing ministry. As well may we conceive a society 
existing without rules to constitute and govern it as 
without selected representatives to expound and enforce 
them ; and when we contemplate the social compact of 
the Church as formed not merely to exist continually as 
she began at the pristine organization, but to expand 
immeasurably and make progress through the ages with 



PEIiMA^'FNT OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 233 

the constitution given by her Founder — as it were, a 
stone cut out without hands and rolling on till the 
whole earth is covered with the magnitude of her de- 
velopment — we may be sure that the agencies which 
propel the movement are steady and constant as they 
are true in working out an eternal purpose. Merely 
spontaneous vigor and zeal in each member of the vast 
community of believers could not avail for the con- 
tinuity ordained. Individual responsibility is always 
felt to be little as the society is large, and unavailing as 
the work is arduous and the result momentous. Even 
at the infancy of the Christian Church and amidst the 
profusion of ardent impulses from Jerusalem to Antioch 
and the glowing fellowship of prophets and teachers 
there, a call was made from heaven for special work to 
be done by special men who were named in the call : 
^' The Holy Ghost said. Separate me Barnabas and Saul 
for the work whereunto I have called them." The self- 
same Spirit will not now cease to separate a special order 
of men to " wait on ministering,'^ when private spon- 
taneity has become so inert and social enthusiasm so 
transient and mutable that no missionary work on earth 
is done by denominations which have no standing min- 
istry at home. 

(9) Facts should be conclusive on this point. Office 
implies gift, of which it is the visible organ. The mul- 
tiplied offices and functions of office described in the 
primitive records of inspiration are to be discriminated 
by facts only as to their temporary or their permanent 
nature. When supernatural gifts or charisms of Pente- 
costal time ceased to be observed, the corresponding 
offices thereon were discontinued. When the ordinary 
ministration of the Spirit remained to endow spiritual 



234 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

men with faithfulness and ability for teaching or for 
ruling, or for both, the corresponding offices remained 
to be filled and recognized perpetually as the ascension- 
gifts of Messiah under the glorious ministration of his 
own Spirit. It is a divinely-recorded fact that a min- 
istry of orders existed simultaneously with that of apos- 
tles and that of gifts merely; and the drift of durability 
in all the arrangements of that crisis tended to make 
the first to be last as well as the last to be first. The 
immemorial office of the past was ordained to be the 
perpetual office of the future. It is a humanly-recorded 
fact that under some form and with some degree of 
power and influence the elder has existed in all the 
historical churches of time, and it is the record of all 
experience and observation that the meeting-house en- 
thusiasm which begins without a teaching eldership 
ordained, and which sits in mystic silence for the Spirit 
to move any man or any woman to speak, at length 
subsides and languishes without comparative duration 
at all among the visibilities of earth. 

II. The second thought on the permanency of sacred 
office is investment for life : " It is a snare to the man 
who devoureth that which is holy, and after vows to 
make inquiry " (Prov. xx. 25) ; ^' Suffer not thy mouth 
to cause thy flesh to sin ; neither say thou before the 
angel, that it was an error ^' (Eccl. v. 6.^; "Be thou 
faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of 
life.^' Rev. ii. 10. Life, at the longest, is but a brief 
term for commission to preach the everlasting gospel. 
Soldiers in this warfare have no discharge ; workmen on 
this building have no dismission ; watchmen on these 
walls have no retirement. Ministers even of a transient 
class were never invested with their office for a term of 



I 



PERMANENT OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 235 

years, and uo one voluntarily forsook it except, like 
Denias, in swimming away from the shipwreck of his 
faith. Considerations which may dissuade a man from 
entering the ministry will not excuse him for laying it 
down at his convenience or his pleasure. Other parties 
in the solemnity of his consecration — God and the 
Church, the Spirit and the bride — are not to be con- 
strained merely by his judgment and his will. His call 
and qualifications have been recognized as true and fit- 
ting by those who are divinely appointed to judge; and 
retroaction, in the gravity of such a matter, must unite 
the same parties all in the reversal of ordination. It is 
not competent for a presbyter and a Presbytery to man- 
age divestment with mutual consent alone. " God is 
judge of all." One ordinance of his appointment can 
be set aside only by another of the same authority and 
suitable in its application to such a case. 

In demitting the ministry fault is apt to be ascertained 
somewhere. Ignorance, inadvertence, presumption, hasty 
impulse, vain imagination and carnal expediency play 
their part on one side; inattention, impatience, partisan in- 
dulgence and perfunctory tape on the other side. These, 
and such-like reprehensible things, should be touched with 
some degree of censure by the ordinance of discipline. 
It may be slight, but it should be something. Even a 
motion to deliberate and inquire and to search out the 
cause in a judicatory — which must publish to the Church 
and the world a dissolution of solemn vows when it is 
made — can scarcely fail to put blame upon one party or 
upon both " before all," with the moral effect of rebuke 
for lightness, at least, in the due solemnities of a spiritual 
administration. 

Without incurring censure men may indeed mistake 



236 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

their calling. Talents may be wanting ; piety may be 
doubtful ; sickness, obloquy or persecution may super- 
vene to diminish or destroy the usefulness of ministers; 
but let them desist for a time rather than demit the office. 
All discovery of unfitness short of censurable offence 
must have other recourse than voluntary abandonment 
of the calling. Inadequate ability — which might be 
found among angels — must work on with redoubled 
earnest and industry. Insufficient piety must repair 
to the Fountain of grace and mercy for a sense of voca- 
tion and renewal of strength, and half the qualifications 
which avail not in one part of the field may succeed well 
in another, for every ordained minister belongs to the 
Church at large in his functions, and his field is the 
world. 

Strenuous persistency like this makes more than man- 
hood in office : it magnifies the office and extols the suf- 
ficiency of God only. And we doubt not that the feeling 
of being shut up to the ministry, like that of being shut 
up to the faith, has in many an instance brought an 
agonizing minister to the throne of grace with such im- 
portunity of desire as to procure from the Spirit of 
Jesus a signet for his commission which he had never 
experienced before. We may well believe that no 
sincerely anxious officer will ever mistake his calling 
and find himself reduced to the necessity of renouncing 
the ministry for want of conscious vocation. The merci- 
ful " High Priest of our profession '^ will authenticate 
what his visible court on earth may have unadvisably 
conferred if the wretched functionary will persevere to 
plead for such a grace, feeling that it is woe unto him if 
he preach not the gospel, and still greater woe if he 
bring upon the gospel suspicion, discredit and shame by 



PERMANENT OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 237 

an opeu relinquishment. In vain, however, may this 
ukimate vocation be expected by the man who ventures 
lightly and presumptuously to intrude. It is only the 
mistake of an honest intention at the threshold which 
may hope to have all that is wanting overtaken by the 
long-suffering grace and goodness of the Saviour. 

III. The ordinary fixedness of pastoral relation be- 
longs to the general conception of permanence in the 
office of a teaching elder. In this relation the Holy 
Ghost has made him bishop with oversiglit of a par- 
ticular flock. This divine Director was particular from 
the beginning to govern the movement of his ministers 
in regard to regions and localities of their work. Even 
the general oversight which was committed to the 
apostles had to follow the constraint of their will and 
wisdom by the Spirit to go or to refrain from going to 
one place and not to another by the sovereignty of his 
direction. Acts xvi. 7. No itinerancy, therefore, should 
be made machinal by a polity of the Church, but every 
pastor should be left to the fellowship of the Spirit to 
guide his settlement or to transfer his ministry from one 
flock to another ; and if the Church as a body should 
have no machinery to keep him moving, still less should 
he make a machine of his own will under the impact of 
indolence, taste or expediency without spiritual power on 
the conscience to govern his continuance or his change. 
Prayerless decision is bad omen. 

(1) The very name of "pastor" intimates a steady 
continuance with one flock, attention to the lambs in 
successive generations as they grow up in his nurture, 
and familiar acquaintance with the temper, conditions 
and wants of the grown, acquired only in the course of 
a durable relation. 



238 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

(2) The fair economy of ministerial support, accord- 
ing to the Scriptures, must import a fixed relation between 
pastor and people. It is a regulated exchange, and not a 
precarious barter, that temporal benefits be returned for 
spiritual privilege and the nutriment of souls. The 
word of God has enjoined it with metaphors or analogies 
taken from the established and permanent reciprocities 
of nature itself and the equities of common sense (1 
Cor. ix.) : " Who goeth a warfare, at any time, on his 
own charges? Who planteth a vineyard and eateth 
not the fruit thereof, or who feedeth a flock and eateth 
not of the milk of the flock ? If we have sown unto 
you spiritual things, is it a great thing, if we should 
reap your carnal things?'^ ^' Even so hath the Lord 
ordained, that they who preach the gospel should live 
of the gospel." Similitude of this kind implies the 
dealing of a settled life and must be colorless and in- 
appropriate to the travelling and transitory connections 
of clerical life, whether this be an interchanging itiner- 
ancy, stated supply or hiring by the month or by the 
single year. Adequate returns to the ministry are all 
indefinite, and we are to wait for them with indefinite 
patience. 

(3) Charges to the eldership in regard to the watch- 
fulness of their station bear the presumption of indefinite 
future in a tenure of local office. (Acts xx. 28, 29) : 
" Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock 
over which the Holy Ghost hath made you ovei-seers, to 
feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with 
his own blood. For I know that after my departure 
shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing 
the flock.'' If these elders of Ephesus were not per- 
manently settled there, but transient as the apostle him- 



PERMANENT OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 239 

self, why were they warned of future dangers to that 
flock, out of the hearing of the flock themselves, at 
Miletus, where they were sent for to meet him ? What- 
ever those elders were, whether teaching, and related so 
to the Church at large, or ruling elders, and therefore 
local, they would have been warned in the presence of 
the people of dangers to come on that people if these 
ministers had not been identified with them in perma- 
nent relation. The indirectness of this argument does 
not diminish its force. On the hypothesis only of a 
fixed relation of those elders are all the circumstance 
and parlance of that interview natural. The emphasis 
with which he speaks of their particular oversight being 
made by the Holy Ghost imports too much reverence 
for that mighty Spirit to consist with the assumption 
that he is e\^r waiting to dissolve one relation and con- 
stitute another, as often as the love of novelty or change 
or the exhaustion of one's homiletic store may impel a 
man to shift his labors to another field. 

Other charges in the apostolic Epistles warrant the 
same conclusion. When Paul salutes " the saints which 
are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons/' we rea- 
sonably infer that these officers are abiding there as per- 
manently as the people themselves. When he writes to 
Titus, "For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou 
shouldest set in order the things which are wanting, and 
ordain elders in every city, as I have appointed thee," 
we can hardly imagine that this evangelist was instructed 
to make travelling preachers of these local appointees, to 
be on the move by force of ordination instead of remain- 
ing identified with the settled inhabitants to supply that 
lack of service which itinerating apostles and evangelists 
had to leave behind. 



240 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

(4) The advantages of itinerancy to the Church are 
overbalanced by the attending evils. The family relation 
of the preacher will be damaged by constant removals. 
The first care of pastoral fidelity is a man's own house- 
hold. His children should have the endearment of early 
associations, the moulding affections and friendships of a 
settled home, and should be saved from the rupture of 
tendrils which seek to entwine what is near them and 
what cannot frequently be broken without making havoc 
in the sensibilities of our nature. The benignant Master 
we serve can hardly be supposed to warrant the model 
of a well-ordered family which the pastor is concerned 
to exhibit thus to be marred of necessity by either a 
system of change or an individual inclination to shift 
the pastoral tie. Itinerancy belongs rather to celibacy 
of the clergy ; and if not, the tendency is to separate 
them as an order too much distinct from the people, 
as the sodalities of the Romish Church, having peculiar 
interests and supported out of a common treasury, with- 
out that immediate communication of him that is taught 
to him that teacheth in all good things which binds 
pastor and people together in sympathetic unity. Other 
evils might be intimated with appeal to facts observed, 
such as invidious comparison of one minister with an- 
other when they come in quick succession, appointed 
rather than chosen ; itching ears, captious criticism, super- 
ficial feelings or fastidious faultfinding, which cannot fail 
to result in alienation, iudifierence, or perhaps contempt 
for the whole class of God's ambassadors. 

(5) The fixedness of pastoral relation is matter of 
fact in the transmission of authentic history. At an 
early period in the Middle Ages we read of two kinds 
of churches, or places of meeting for public worship. 



PERMANENT OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 241 

They were called tituli and martyria. The latter uanie 
was given to places occupied once a year in honor of 
some martyred saint, but the former were places of 
stated and constant worship, and were called tituli 
beciiuse of the names they fastened on the officiating 
ministers respectively. Thus we have '^ Cyprian of 
Carthage/' "Ambrose of Milan" and "Augustine of 
Hippo/' and occasionally the proper name of the man 
would be transmuted wholly from the patronymic to the 
local. This fact plainly indicates that itinerancy could 
not have been the normal condition of presbyters or 
bishops in supi)lying ordinances of the gospel to the 
churches, or we would have long names to read in 
Church history and the pages thereof would hardly 
suffice for the record of titles. 

This whole argument for indefinite duration of the 
pastoral tie at one and the same conventicle, where the 
Holy Ghost makes the elder a bishop in presence of the 
particular people he is called to serve and oversee, miglit 
be much extended, but not without trenching on the 
lessons of pastoral theology, the problems of casuistry 
and the province of polemical debate. It is not so much 
a dogma as a consistency or a part of symmetrical gov- 
ernment to be inserted here only as a logical point in 
rounding off the notion of permanency in the sacred 
office. The rule is almost overlaid with exceptions. 
There must be frequent occasions in the providence 
of God for a change of pastoral settlement ; and if we 
had in Scripture a demonstration of direct words against 
it, there might be a sad entanglement of conscience in 
many a great and good minister of Christ, and a con- 
strained submission to ills which might destroy his use- 
fulness and his happiness at life-work. But ordered, as 

16 



242 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

it is, in hints and in warranted inferences merely, we are 
authorized to make fixedness the rule and removal the 
exception, and one which slight indications of the divine 
will as to any change proposed must lead the conscien- 
tious minister to pause with anxious inquiry and with 
much prayer, yielding to it only when it is pressed upon 
him by the indubitable hand of God. 



CHAPTER X. 
PARITY OF MINISTERS. 

PERMANENCY of any office or institute leads us, 
by the logic of events, to a contemplation of equal- 
ity in the ultimate distribution of power among men, 
especially as the spread of its mission becomes universal. 
Time in its duration must bring down toward a level 
disparity of height among all the works of nature, 
providence and grace. In unison with Oriental con- 
ceptions of ruling power, the Church wisely began its 
government in patriarchal absoluteness of authority; 
and then, as the family grew to a people in religion, a 
lower level of three orders in the constitution of hier- 
archy began the distribution of order and authority 
with some degree of equity. And yet, while this triad, 
with the help of theocracy, was fulfilling its errand, 
holy men of old, speaking as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost, foresaw a lower and broader level to be 
reached when universality would be attained by repre- 
sentatives of the people in gospel diffusion, making that 
gauge of levels and bottom of altitudes, the sea, their 
metaphor of rank when the knowledge of the Lord 
shall fill the earth "as the waters cover the sea." 

Monarchy and aristocracy cannot have a long future in 
the Church. When he was training a band of witnesses, 
whom he named apostles, and observed their emulations 

243 



244 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

and rivalry in aspiration for pre-eminence, Jesus uttered 

the only distinct institutional mandate that dropped 
from his lips — the parity of ministers and destined 
equality of service in his kingdom : ^'And there was 
also a strife among them, which of them should be 
accounted the greatest. And he said unto them, Tlie 
kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them ; and 
they that exercise authority upon them are called bene- 
factors. But ye shall not be so : but he that is greatest 
among you let him be as the younger ; and he that is 
chief, as he that doth serve." 

So far as organization was done by the apostles, they 
originated no system of polity at all, but evidently 
copied, as we have seen, the model of the synagogue, 
adapting its principal feature — two or three, or more, 
coequal elders — to Christian life and worship. It is 
remarkable that directions in the selection of these pres- 
byters and their qualifications and duties are pastoral 
more than ecclesiastical. There is nowhere an emphasis 
on office itself, even when it is called " a good work.'' 1 
Tim. iii. 1. The notability is upon the qualifications and 
character of an aspirant wdio ''desires it" — "blame- 
less," "vigilant," ''sober," "of good behavior," etc. 
There is nowhere a graduated scale of office in the 
Church, higher and lower, mentioned in revelation. 
We read of division, and even of subdivision, of work 
to be done officially, and of "double honor" awarded to 
both divisions, and especially to one, and this the more 
laborious. 1 Tim. v. 17. But even the subdivision 
made under a pressure of responsibility is a distribu- 
tion of work on the same level of rank. 

Contrasted with all this unsealed delineation of office 
in Scripture is that of diocesan bishop in modern prelacy 



PARITY OF MINISTERS. 245 

— a bishop of bishops, hierarch iu long gradation, a man 
of three ordinations for himself, a lone ordaiuer of 
others, au apostle by tradition and a high priest of 
sacramental religion. That such an officer cannot be 
identified at all with the bishop of the Bible, Dr. Light- 
foot, bishop of Durham, England, frankly concedes, and 
yet in this country we still need a demonstration of this 
from Scripture. 

The first passage to be cited is Acts xx. 28 : " Take 
heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over 
the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers 
(bishops) to feed the church of God, which he hath 
purchased with his own blood." This exhortation is 
given to a number of elders whom the apostle had sent 
for to Ephesus to meet him at Miletus. It needs no 
comment to manifest the identity of elder and bishop 
where the terra "overseers" (iKcffxoTTov^) — bishops — is so 
expressly given to elders, with no shade of difference in 
the signification but that of special duty or oversight 
devolving on elders when they are actually put in charge 
of a particular flock. The bishop is not called even 
chief, or primus inter pares, by this convertible name. 

The next passage (Phil. i. 1) does not mention the 
word " elders," but " bishops and deacons " only, and 
the plural number of the former — excluding, of course, 
the notion of one bishop presiding over others — indi- 
cates only a number of elders who were invested with 
the trust of an oversight either in a collegiate pastorate 
or in different particular churches : " Paul and Tira- 
otheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in 
Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and 
deacons." The salutation here is peculiar in that it is 
addressed to officers along with the sainted people who 



246 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

are mentioned first. All other greetings of the kind in 
other Epistles are addressed to the people only, as con- 
stituting the churches, and the apostle Paul was so in- 
tent on this subject of writing as — occasionally, at least 
— to insist on his own words being read to all, either 
with or without a verbal comment by officers : '^ I 
charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto 
all the holy brethren." 1 Thess. v. 27. The reason for 
a special mention here of bishops and deacons would 
seem to be simply the tenor of gratitude in that letter 
to Philippi for the generous relief of his necessities, in 
which the bishops and deacons together were doubtless 
active and influential agents. Obviously, the quotation 
means that the body of believers were first in considera- 
tion; the elders next, in their consistory, making a plural 
number and called " bishops,'' in parochial oversight as 
their burden of duty; and the deacons last, in the 
special work of collecting and disbursing the benefac- 
tions of all. And without any such analysis the com- 
prehensive word must mean that elders are called 
"bishops" in the detail of pastoral duty. 

The third passage which demonstrates the identity 
of elder and bishop is Tit. i. 5 : ^' For this cause left I 
thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things 
that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city as I 
had appointed thee. If any be blameless, the husband 
of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot 
or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless, as the 
steward of God ; not self-willed, not soon angry, not 
given to wine," etc. The further enumeration in this 
reason for carefulness at the choice of men for the elder- 
ship, being still more exactly predicates of the right 
men for the pastorate of a particular church, adds to the 



PARITY OF MINISTERS. 247 

force of this text in proving what is manifest on its face 
to any honest reader — that elder and bishop are identi- 
cal in rank; and the same qualifications become more 
pointed and minute when the elder takes charge of a 
particular flock and is called '^bishop" on this account. 
The same office, on one side, is designated by name for 
the mature dignity of age, and on the other side by 
name for the special activity of functions in supervising 
and serving the interests of one congregation. 

The fourth proof-text comes from the inspiration of 
Peter, "an apostle of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. v. 12): "The 
elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an 
elder, and a witness of the suiferings of Christ, and also 
a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed ; feed the 
flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight 
thereof," etc. This oversight is expressed by the par- 
ticiple ^ntaxoTcouvzez ("being bishops thereof"). Here 
the apostle calls himself a fellow-elder, as the apostle 
John does, also, in the superscription of his Second and 
Third Epistles, indicating that eldership is the generical 
office of the Christian ministry for all ages, and that all 
above it in rank is ephemeral, and all below it, as bishop 
and deacon, is but titular service, which the levels of 
Presbyterial benches, councils or assemblies, legitimately 
direct and govern. 

It may seem to intelligent readers a superfluity thus 
to expand the Bible demonstration that elders and bishops 
were the same in rank of office when the apostles finished 
their direction of the Christian Church, inasmuch as it 
is conceded now by prelacy itself that the two names 
were first used convertibly for the same office. The 
concession is reluctant, however, and had not been made 
when the Ordinal of the English Church was composed. 



248 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

else the scriptures giving qualifications and duties of 
elders would hardly have been cited for the ordination 
of diocesan bishops created by the State. Nor is the 
concession ])opularized even yet and in this country, 
where Bibles overlaid with cathedral assertion are in 
the hands of the people. The title " bishop " can hardly 
be retained at all in designating parochial pastors, which 
is confessedly the only scriptural use of the term. It 
would be an interesting arbitration of common sense to 
have the people generally invited to decide on the one 
side between Dr. Hammond and Bishop Pearson, who 
held that all the bishops of the New Testament must 
have been prelates of rank superior to elders, and on the 
other side with Dr. Dodwell, Dr. Whitby and Bishop 
Hoadly, and now with Dr. Lightfoot, holding with us 
that they were all presbyters (or elders) only, and that 
no prelates existed until the apostles, whose successors 
they claim to be, passed away without even a color of 
testamentary heritage. 

This contest continues, and the people do not seem to 
know it because of the continued clamor and boast about 
apostolic succession, which, without one word of warrant 
in the canon of Scripture, and without one trace of au- 
thentic history for two hundred years after Christ, per- 
sists to assert itself because it is Nicene and of imperial 
birth and breeding ; and this notwithstanding the fact, as 
we have seen, that John the beloved disciple and Peter the 
rock-disciple both called themselves elders, and the latter 
"fellow-elder.^' So, if apostles identified themselves with 
elders then, and if elders identify themselves with apostles 
now, merging bishop in apostle, what becomes of " three 
orders" in the teaching ministry, of which we hear so 
much? Besides, if we adopt the post-apostolic hier- 



PARITY OF MINISTERS. 249 

archy with Jerome under protest, and excuse it for the 
reason he did — because visible unity required the apos- 
tle-bishop for the sake of expediency in ruling against 
schism — we tarnish with misnomer the office of apostle, 
who was not a ruler, but a witness for Christ, in laying 
the foundations of the gospel and in promulging the 
testimony everywhere to Jews and Gentiles. Apostles 
were missionaries more than rulers, teachers more than 
masters. They inherited and bequeathed a polity which 
they approved, but never contriv^ed. Elders are the 
only constituted magistracy of the Christian Church, 
and their charter is " of old time," as acknowledged by 
Christ and his apostles. 

Parity of rank in the ministry may be vindicated in 
every particular of superiority alleged in hierarchical 
systems of church government. A brief survey of dis- 
parities here will suffice. The five particulars in which 
elders are made inferior to bishops are confirmation as a 
rite, in which the baptized members are admitted to full 
communion, the exercise of discipline, ordination to office, 
the deacon as a preacher and the extent of jurisdiction. 

I. It is claimed in prelacy that the diocesan bishop 
only has the authority of admitting to full privileges of 
the Church those who have been baptized in infancy or 
age, and the ceremony with which this is done has 
become in his hands the rite of confirmation. A 
definition of this rite is difficult, if not impossible, and 
the description of it varies among both Romanists and 
Protestant Episcopalians. Probably the following, in 
Bishop Hobart's Companion for the Altar , is the most 
generally accepted : " It is a ratification, on the part of 
those who receive it, of their baptismal engagements, 
and a confirmation by almighty God of all the privileges 



250 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

of their baptism. The bishops are to confirm all that 
have repented and are made disciples in the washing of 
regeneration by laying their hands upon them and in- 
voking the aid of the Holy Spirit, that they may con- 
tinue Christ's faithful soldiers and servants to their lives' 
end, as St. Peter and St. John did with the disciples of 
Samaria." 

(1) Examine the cited proof-texts, beginning with the 
reference to Peter and John at Samaria, mentioned in 
the last clause of the description (Acts viii. 14-17) : 
" Now, when the apostles which were at Jerusalem 
heard that Samaria had received the word of God, 
they sent unto them Peter and John : who, when they 
were come down, prayed for them that they might re- 
ceive the Holy Ghost, for as yet he w^as fallen upon none 
of them : only they were baptized in the name of the 
Lord Jesus.'' This passage, obviously, has not the 
slightest bearing upon any ritualistic performance for 
the generations following. It relates only to the char- 
isms of Pentecost, the transactions of a miraculous time 
by the hands of an extraordinary apostleship ; and even 
their hands were not more potential than might have 
been those of Philip the deacon, by whom the Samari- 
tans had been evangelized ; for the Holy Ghost descended, 
in answer to their prayers, with those supernatural effects 
which were so palpable at Jerusalem in answer to prayer, 
and visibly symbolized by " cloven tongues, like as of 
fire, sitting upon each of them." Something like this, 
and palpable to the senses, must have been the manifes- 
tation, or Simon the sorcerer w^ould not have offered 
money to buy the power the apostles had in that sort 
of confirmation. 

The next proof is found in Acts xix. 1-7, which we 



PARITY OF MINISTERS. 251 

have only to read and dismiss for the same reason — its 
absolute irrelevancy : "And when Paul had laid his 
hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them ; and 
they spake with tongues and prophesied." If our 
modern prelates were veritable apostles continued, and 
the action of laying on their hands were attended with 
marvellous phenomena of gifts as the effect of confirma- 
tion, we could not receive it as a rite perpetual on the 
explanation of Bishop Hobart— r-that inward grace was 
conferred in those acts of apostolic hands of which the 
outward marvels were indication at that time. This 
fancy is mere assertion, and is inconsistent with facts 
of Scripture and experience. The gift of tongues never 
was, and never will bfe, the sure exponent of confirmed 
grace in the heart : " Many will say to me in that day. 
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name ; and 
in thy name have cast out devils ; and in thy name done 
many wonderful works ? And then will I profess unto 
them, I never knew you : depart from me, ye that work 
iniquity." 

(2) It is singular and significant that portions of 
Scripture which give us the words "confirm," "con- 
firmed" and "confirming" in the Authorized Version 
and the recent Revision also, and which in their places 
mean the same thing that is said to be imported in the 
meaning of confirmation as a rite, are not cited at all for 
the warrant of its practice. Acts xiv. 22 ; xv. 32, 41 ; 
1 Cor. i. 8. Is it because the grace of Jesus Christ and 
the exhortations of his word on the lips of missionary- 
men, without the laying on of hands or any ritualistic 
form, is the true method of confirmation for souls under 
the gospel? Or is it the affectation of apostolic dignity 
and a superior grade, to be reckoned the same as that of 



252 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

John, Peter and Paul, which led the diocesans to force 
the Scriptures and wrest the temporal sense without 
necessity, in order to crystallize into a rite for them- 
selves alone to handle the precious words of Holy Writ 
which were given to '' drop as the rain and distill as the 
dew '' in confirming souls ^' unto the end '^? It is also 
curious that another passage which led John Calvin to 
suggest the apostolic antiquity of confirmation as a rite, 
in his commentary on the text, but not in his Institutes 
(where it is rejected), was not included with proof-texts 
by the Companion for the Altar. Was this also because 
it does not signify three orders in the ministry ? 

(3) Hebrews vi. 1, 2 is the text to which we refer, 
and the only one in the Bible that has the least plausi- 
bility in favor of confirmation as a primitive rite: 
^^ Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine 
of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying 
again the foundation of repentance from dead works, 
and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, 
and of laying on of hands, and of the resurrection 
of the dead, and of eternal judgment.^' This " laying 
on of hands,'' mentioned here as an elementary feature 
of the Christian system, has a variety of senses in both 
the Old and the New Testament, and any of them more 
familiar than the ceremony of any rite. It was a ges- 
ture used in patriarchal blessing, in prayer put up for 
one when sacrifice was offered with confession of sin, in 
solemn consecration to office, in benediction, as our Sav- 
iour laid his hands on little children to bless them and 
on the sick to heal them, and when, in imitation of our 
Lord, the apostles laid their hands on the sick to heal 
them, and on the deacons to ordain them, and on con- 
verts when God was pleased to answer prayers by shed- 



PARITY OF MINISTERS. 253 

ding down on these the supernatural gifts. Now, to 
say that this last occasion of the gesture, to be imitated 
by all succeeding bishops of higher degree made by 
man, is the allusion of the Bible in this place, must 
arrantly beg the question even if we should accept this 
rite itself to be continued in the churches, and admit 
that the gifts of Pentecost were, in a figure, just the 
same as the Christian graces for all time, which are 
confirmed only by the word and Spirit of God. How 
much more sensible the opinion of Cartwright, that 
this phrase denotes by metonymy the mode of ordination 
by the laying on of hands for the institution itself of 
a standing ministry ! This, indeed, as a fundamental 
tenet infinitely more than as a ceremony, is categorically 
fitted here in the enumeration of repentance, faith, bap- 
tism, the resurrection and eternal judgment. 

(4) The disparagement of baptism — or, as Bishop 
Hobart calls it, " washing of regeneration " — theoreti- 
cally and practically done by the rite of confirmation, 
is inconsistent with the authority of Christ, who com- 
manded us to baptize all that are discipled by the 
gospel, without the slightest intimation of any supple- 
mentary action needed after an interval of years in 
order to continue and confirm its benefits by counter- 
signing the sanction and seal we have in the initiatory 
ordinance itself. Rebaptism is not allowed either by 
popery or by prelacy, and even lay baptism is protected 
against any repetition in both systems, because confirma- 
tion is reserved as a rite by which defective baptism is 
cured and the neglect of it is overtaken and the sanc- 
tification of it realized and its validity reached by the 
retroactive efficacy of this handling by a prelate. A 
resei-ve like this could not have been the mind of Christ 



264 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

or of his apostles when the completeness of baptism as 
a token of admission to the kingdom was pronounced 
often and emphatically. Surely, Peter and John at 
Samaria and Paul at Ephesus, in laying their hands 
instantly on the converts, when the fact of a baptism 
was assured, that they might receive the Holy Ghost, 
held no interval of preparation for another ceremony in 
order to be reassured that the efficacy of baptism con- 
tinued and might be reserved, corrected or confirmed, 
by the laying on of hands. 

(5) The disparagement of baptism itself is aggravated 
by the humiliation of the baptizer, also, in reserving a 
subsequent confirmation by the hands of a superior 
order. That great ecclesiastic of the fourth century, 
Jerome, weak in his conformity as he was firm in his 
judgment, murmured against this usage of the Latin 
Church, saying that committing the benediction of such 
a rite to the diocesan bishops was " rather in honor of 
the priesthood than warranted by any law." With him 
Augustine agreed, both of them regarding the nature 
of this rite as merely benediction in form and import, 
as we pronounce it at the close of public w^orship with 
uplifted hands over the congregation. The whole North 
African Church dissented from Rome and agreed with 
the Greek churches in assigning to the presbyter, as a 
parochial bishop, the ceremony of confirmation. In- 
deed, the incongruity of transferring it to diocesan 
bishops was one of the charges made by Photius of 
Constantinople against Nicolaus of Rome in the ninth 
century, and remained one of the causes for a final dis- 
ruption between the Eastern and Western branches of 
the old Catholic Church. The Greeks were right, in all 
reason, if such a rite should exist at all. It is a cruel 



PARITY OF MINISTERS. 255 

humiliation to the pastor that an overseer must come 
with periodical visitation and superior title and do for 
the young people and catechumens of his charge what 
their own shepherd must not do, though competent and 
required to confirm in every scriptural way those whom 
he has baptized and taught the truth as it is in Christ. 

(6) Although it is proper that in every particular 
church there should be an emphasis put upon the occa- 
sion of admitting baptized members to full privileges in 
communion, it is enough to charge them in the public 
assembly with the duties and responsibilities of a full 
profession by exhortation, encouragement and supplica- 
tion to God for his blessing. More than this, and other 
than this, to inform them virtually that they were re- 
generated in baptism, and that the efficacy of that ordi- 
nance, where it has been lost, is now restored, where it 
has been defective is now completed, and where it has 
continued is now increased and confirmed to the end, 
must always tend more or less to lull the confirmed in 
carnal security, to make benediction a sacrament, and the 
sacrament salvation, and salvation a formalism of per- 
functory continuance. Doubtless, truly spiritual pro- 
fessors will escape such tendency, but not without some 
detriment, which always attends unauthorized solem- 
nities. 

Parity in Discipline. 
II. We claim for every ordained minister an equal 
power of discipline over members — that is, the exercise 
of authority in the censure of offences against the order 
and purity of the Church by enforcing the laws given 
for this purpose. That all ministers of the word are 
alike empowered in this respect may be argued — 



256 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

(1) From the tenor of their commission, beginning 
with its preface : " All power is given unto me in 
heaven and in earth, go ye therefore," etc. It is obvi- 
ous that no intervening depositories of power can come, 
without usurpation, between the supreme fountain and 
the ministers of word and sacraments in any department 
of ecclesiastical administration. Especially is it unau- 
thorized and presumptuous when such intervention 
subordinates the elder and actually supersedes him in 
disciplinary measures with his own flock. These min- 
isters of the word and sacraments are called "stewards" 
in 1 Cor. iv. 1. Stewards had the superintendence of 
households, bestowed immediately by the master, and in 
great houses wore a key upon the shoulder for a badge 
of office. Hence the use of this emblem by our Lord 
in giving the keys to his representative apostles, the 
original witnesses, who were themselves ministers of the 
word pre-eminently, and governed the Christian Church 
as preachers incomparably more than as rulei-s. Open- 
ing and shutting by the use of the keys go together. 
The same officers, unquestionably, are authorized to 
admit and to exclude. The door of admittance they 
open is baptism, which ministers of the word are com- 
manded to administer, and the door of privilege to 
which members enter by baptism in form is to be shut 
in the deprivation of privilege by the same authority 
that had opened the access. 

(2) A proof of this fair equation is to be derived, 
also, from the very nature of all warranted discipline 
by the church. Its elementary definition is an author- 
ized application of divine words to ascertained offi^nces. 
No ministry of man has more than declamtive punish- 
ment in its force at any degree of culpability in the 



PARITY OF MINISTERS. 257 

offender. It must be readily conceded that preacliing 
itself contains Avarning, reproof and rebuke, in its 
ordinary ministration of the pastorate especially ; and 
if the lower forms of infliction by the word are thus 
confessedly in the hands of an eldership, where shall 
the line be drawn at which the presbyter, who is a 
parochial bishop, shall desist, and the diocesan bishop 
assume exclusively the process of censure ? This arbi- 
trary distinction comes, unquestionably, from an im- 
perial origin which made the secular diocese religious 
and armed the diocesan with a sword more than moral 
in its edge and other than spiritual in its aim. 

(3) The names and the attributes given by the Bible 
to the New-Testament elder import the utmost dis- 
ciplinary power competent to any spiritual officer. 
"Presbyter" itself, in its official use, meant from of 
old a judge and ruler at the gate. The same word 
or words in Hebrew to denote the rulers over all Israel 
originally selected at the bidding of Moses to aid him 
in the administration of rule (Deut. i. 13 ; Mic. iii. 9) 
are translated in the Septuagint by a term or terms 
which thrice in one chapter of Hebrews (xiii. 7, 17, 24) 
denominate ordinary ministers of the word. The same 
term that is used by Thucydides, Demosthenes, Herod- 
otus and Plato for designating rulers of armies, cities 
and kingdoms is used in Rom. xii. 8; 1 Thess. v. 12; 
1 Tim. v. 17 to signify elders of the Christian Church. 
Every power deputed to church-officers we find included 
in three Greek terms (used as verb, ])articiple or noun), 
T^yio/me, TZpotarTj/K, Troe/ialuw, and each one of them, un- 
doubtedly, a})plied to the simple presbyter of Scripture. 
If, then, we believe that the sacred writers were guided 
by infallible wisdom in the selection of significant words 



258 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

for designating the legitimate officers of the Church, we 
must believe that gospel ministers, as such, are clothed 
with paramount disciplinary power in the exercise of 
their appropriate jurisdiction, amenable only to assem- 
blies of themselves, and to no higher personage on 
earth. 

(4) Facts bear witness that elders are chief in the 
exercise of ecclesiastical authority, whatever its form 
may be. They were associated with apostles on terms 
of equal commission at the first General Assembly con- 
stituted in Christendom. Acts xv. There were not two 
houses in that convocation — one of apostles and the 
other of elders and '^ brethren " — nor was it a matter 
of routine ecclesiasticism or debate about liturgical 
phrases which engaged the deliberation of "apostles 
and elders'^ together, but the most momentous ques- 
tion of the a^e for a livino^ missionarv Church — how 
far the trammels of Judaism should hinder and load 
a free gospel and the defunct ceremonial of hierarchical 
time should trail on the glorious liberty of faith in 
Christ. Barnabas and Paul, with " no small dissension 
and disputation ^^ at Antioch with Judaizers, could not 
settle the question without reference to a general council 
of " apostles and elders '^ at Jerusalem ; and when the 
decision was made, Paul and Barnabas were associated 
with acknowledged elders — Judas and Silas — in pro- 
mulging the decrees by appointment of the council. 
Now subtract the transitory element from the constitu- 
ency of that supreme arbitration of faith and love and 
duty in the first age, and elders remain the only true 
successors in representative power. Other facts might 
be cited to the same effect. Pecuniary trusts in relief 
of sufferiug: comnumities and sustentation of the infant 



PARITY OF MINISTERS. 259 

Church were first laid at the feet of apostles and after- 
ward sent to the elders, their only visible successors in 
the highest authority of distribution. Another fact 
in this connection should be noticed in the ministry 
of Paul, *^an apostle" of special mention as the dis- 
ciplinarian at Corinth. Instead of proceeding thither 
with bodily presence to direct the process of trial and 
punishment in the case of a profligate offender, he sends 
only the urgency of advice, and relegates process to the 
constituted authorities of the church among the Co- 
rinthians themselves. These, of course, were the elders 
whom he ordained, or advised to be ordained, " in every 
church. '^ 

(5) The example of apostolic dealing with the church 
at Corinth in the conduct of discipline suggests the 
inexpediency, as well as the want of warrant, in pro- 
cedures of discipline, to entrust the practical exercise to 
any one superior to the parochial officers, who have the 
immediate oversight of membership and of the intima- 
cies of social life in each particular church. The tact is 
wanting, necessarily, where familiar acquaintance with 
character is wanting, and the diocesan bishop, whether 
distant or near, cannot possess what the parochial bishop 
or pastor knows of origin, growth, environment, etc., 
which modify sound judgment in the censure of wicked- 
ness. The most pious of prelates must, therefore, often 
drop the reins in fear of making mistakes, and must 
allow folly and sin to be rampant where the unity he 
represents was made ostensibly the best efficient in the 
repression of evil. Never does the word of God repose 
the safety of his Church in the unity of one man, pope 
or prelate, placed over numbers of men, but the con- 
trary. Solomon said, " Where no counsel is, the people 



260 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

fall ; but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety." 
A greater than Solomon said, in directing an ultimate 
appeal, "Tell it to the church.'' Who can believe that 
our Lord meant by this, " Tell it to the bishop," a dig- 
nitary who makes a judicial circuit in coming, or comes 
only when sent for, to take cognizance of causes outside 
of his personal knowledge and reported to him by 
rumor ? Take, also, the words of Peter (1 Pet. v. 2, 3), 
" The elders which are among you I exhort, who am 
also an elder, and a witness : feed the flock of God 
w^hich is among you, taking the oversight thereof" (act- 
ing as bishops thereof), and read them in the parlance 
of prelacy for a comment : " The elders which are among 
you I exhort, who am not an elder, but a bishop, and 
not a witness chiefly, but a ruler : feed the flock of 
God which is among you, without taking the oversight 
as bishops, for I am the only bishop, and am soon to 
leave my oversight to successors like myself, who will 
be over you in rank to exercise the authority of dis- 
cipline exclusively." Is not this contradiction to Peter? 
(6) The apostles did not exercise discipline themselves 
except in words of preaching and epistolary counsel. 
The local officers in particular churches were authorized 
to conduct the process themselves. The example of 
Paul in the sway of his authority among the Corinth- 
ians has been cited often to the contrary, but this only 
apparent exception is easily explained. He was the 
■father of that church (1 Cor. iv. 15), and more entitled 
than "ten thousand instructors" to guide them with his 
counsels. Their local officers were divided among them- 
selves, and he would naturally seek to unite them by 
his letters; and his interference in discipline was not to 
execute it himself, but to prompt them to this unpleasant 



PARITY OF MINISTERS. 2G1 

duty — both to inflict the censure, and to remove it on 
evidence of repentance in the offender : " Wherefore I 
beseech you," etc. This surely is not the language of 
dictation, even, so much as that of paternal interest and 
affection. There is also in the case at Corinth, as well 
as in that at Ephesus (1 Tim. i. 20), a trace of the 
supernatural, belonging only to the apostles, and min- 
istry of gifts in that age of miraculous beginning, de- 
livering over " to Satan for the destruction of the flesh," 
which, interpreted any way, is hardly intelligible in the 
ordinary exercise of discipline. Besides, the peculiarity 
of these cases must be joined with a logical assumption 
which proves too much, and therefore nothing at all, for 
the arrogance which takes away from the eldership to 
an episcopal apostolate the distinctive ordinance of dis- 
cipline in the process. The argument from these in- 
stances would make Paul a primate among the apostles 
themselves, for he is the only one of record who con- 
cerned himself immediately in the practice of discipline. 
Also, it is reckoned fairly that more than a hundred 
different churches existed in the time of the apostles, 
and it is fairly presumed that in these new and crude 
formations other cases of disorder and offence occurred 
which in the silence of Scripture must have been han- 
dled by the ordinary benches of elders. 

Parity in Ordaining to Office. 
III. The apostles did not reserve to themselves the 
power of ordination more than that of discipline. After 
the ordination of deacons at the beginning of their 
church-work (Acts vi.), and the ordination of elders 
in churches of Asia Minor by " Barnabas and Saul " 
(Acts xiv.), we read no more of ordination performed 



2G2 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

by apostles in company. And we do not find on record 
one instance of an apostle acting as a lone ordainer. 
Not even in the case of PauPs ^^early-beloved son, 
Timothy/' was he a lone ordainer. When we are 
pointed to his words in 2 Tim. i. 6 (" Wherefore I put 
thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, 
which is in thee by the putting on of my hands ''), we 
cannot accept as certain at all the reference to be to or- 
dination to office (as we have seen in another connection), 
and not rather to a faith — an extraordinary faith, the faith 
of miracles, peculiar to that age, and like other gifts of 
God bestowed at the laying on of hands by a lone apostle : 
" To another faith, by the same Spirit.'' 1 Cor. xii. 9. 
This kind of faith seems to have been given to the 
family of Timothy in three generations coexisting in 
the ministry of Paul, as we see in the context — the 
grandmother, the mother and the son. This gift the 
receiver is here exhorted to stir up {d-va^wnopetv) as one 
does a smouldering fire to a flame ; and the apostle adds, 
as a reason, the nature of this gift : " For God hath not 
given us the spirit of fear; but of power and of love 
and of a sound mind." The whole congruity of the 
passage is spoiled by the notion of ordination to office. 
Office in the case of Timothy is explicitly declared 
in 1 Tim. iv. 14 : " Neglect not the gift that is in thee, 
which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on 
of the hands of the presbytery." Here no function of 
Paul is apparent, unless it might be as an elder and one 
of that Presbytery. But the dynamic preposition dta 
takes 7cpo(p7jTeia^ {^' by prophecy ") instead of the per- 
sonal action of Paul in the other passage ; "by prophecy" 
instead of " by the putting on of my hands," it is here. 
According to the predictions which had gone before upon 



PARITY OF 3IINISTEES. 263 

the child of such a family, he was in due time ordained 
a presbyter by a Presbytery. According to the high 
spiritual power conferred on apostles, he next obtained 
from God a gift which fitted him for the ministry of 
gifts as well as of orders, and this came at the symbolic 
putting of the great apostle's hands upon his head. The 
frivolous effort so often made to shape these two passages 
together in a construction which makes Paul the ordainer 
and the Presbytery a mere accompaniment will never 
satisfy the candid scholar : dca (^' by ") and //era {" with ^') 
are familiarly interchangeable in the Greek, we read, 
and in the New Testament are often changed, for 
euphony, to express the same thing. Thus, in Acts 
XV. 4, 12 these two prepositions are used precisely in 
the same sense, not to mention other places. To say, 
then, that in the transaction of Timothy's investment 
the virtue of ordination was from Paul only, in did, and 
the formal concurrence merely of an eldership in /lerdy 
in order to bolster the usage of diocesan episcopacy by 
a difference of particles, cannot be creditable to the man- 
hood of sacred learning or to good sense. 

But if we should allow the modification which a dif- 
ference between these convertible prepositions might 
effect on the record of Timothy's ordination, what shall 
we do with " the presbytery " in this matter of making 
a bishop and diocesan bishop, that Timothy is claimed 
to have been made by the hands of Paul ? Does prelacy 
admit of such an accompaniment now in the consecration 
of a diocesan bishop? Would not all popery and prelacy 
both revolt from an ordination so performed at present 
by the hands of inferiors laid upon the head of a superior 
in rank — hands of working elders on the head of an 
apostole-bishop — which of course communicate nothing 



264 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

liiglicr tliaii themselves? No refinemeut on the prejio- 
sitions ciin eliminate the eldership, and other evasions 
must be sought for to escape the presbyterian ordina- 
tion of Timothy. The word " presbytery " {j:(iea[^uT£fnov), 
inasmuch as Peter and John severally called themselves 
presbyter (elder), must mean here the college of apostles, 
it is said, rather than the council of presbytere. Yet 
this word was undoubtedly the old synagogue-name for 
the bench of elders, and was always used by the apostolic 
Fathers to denote an eldership meeting, never the apos- 
tolic assembly or college. It is also asserted that the 
Christian Church should be formed on the model of the 
temple and its hierarchy, and not on the synagogue and 
its humanly-invented simplicity. How shall these 
positions be reconciled? For the sake of making 
Timothy a diocesan bishop will they take for this 
one occasion a synagogue denomination for the twelve 
apostles in council, their own Ignatius himself to the 
contrary notwithstanding ? and if the Presbytery in that 
ordination of Timothy was a council of apostles under a 
singular name, and the apostle Paul, as they say, was the 
ordainer alone " by the putting on of my hands," what 
an attitude it gives to him in the midst of fellow-apostles, 
making him the archapostle, with a pre-eminence which 
he resisted in others and disavowed in himself through 
the whole tenor of his life and writing ! Again, if the 
term rendered ''Presbytery'' mean office itself, as Calvin 
once thought and as some Episcopalians of our day have 
reaffirmed, then either the apostles acted in the capacity 
of elders in giving the office such a name, or the result of 
their action was the ordination of an elder, the officer 
made corresponding to the designation of the office, or 
the abstract office itself must have had hands to lay on 



PARITY OF MINISTERS. 265 

the living personal incumbent; which, of course, would 
be senseless. We must, therefore, escape from every 
dilemma on the obvious import of the phrase by recog- 
nizing a body of elders separating Timothy to the minis- 
try of their own order by the laying on of their own 
hands. They could not invest him with an office higher 
than their own. 

And yet so high was this office of their own re<;koned 
in apostolic times that the first full proceeding in the 
solemnity of ordination actually separated to its work, 
at the bidding of the Holy Ghost, " Barnabas and SauP' 
— the first already in the ministry of gifts, the second 
already called to be an apostle. Acts xiii. In this trans- 
action the complete pattern of such procedure, even if it 
were exceptional in being designed for a special mission- 
ary-tour, we see the action of a Presbytery, the model 
way of consecration to office in the Church — fasting, 
prayer and laying on of hands — without the slightest 
regard or deference of inferiors to superiors either in 
rank or in talent, " prophets and teachers,^^ without the 
name of " bishop '^ in the number, ordaining, at the call 
of God's eternal Spirit, the great apostle of the Gentiles. 

Parity in Preaching. 
IV. There is no gradation among preachers indicated 
in all the ordinations mentioned in Scripture. Like the 
ordinance of baptisna, ordination to preach was complete 
and finished once for all when it was rightly solemnized 
once. Probation of candidates must precede the solem- 
nity, not follow it. The so-called " three orders '^ in the 
ministry are essentially but one order. A stepping-stone 
at the door is no part of the door itself. The deacon's 
order in preaching is no distinct office with which a can- 



266 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

didate feels contented to abide ^' faitliful even unto fleath," 
any more than license to preach in the way of probation 
will satisfy the Presbyterian student and his Presbytery 
that he ought to remain in that capacity, making full 
proof of his ministry at that degree of inchoation. 

The affectation of Judaism after the secular state of it 
perished began to call the Christian deacons *' Levites." 
These had been servitors, instructors, musicians, etc., in 
the old economy, and the name, transferred to deacons, 
naturally suggested similar occupations for the new in 
the same varieties of character and alternation. Besides, at 
this time the bishops, though not yet diocesan, were eager 
to possess the sacerdotal functions which now sought the 
sympathies of Christianity as a castaway priesthood of 
the temple. The Levites had always been excluded from 
priestly performance, though serving it, as ministers of 
religion, beside the family of Aaron. The Christian 
deacons, with such a resemblance of historical disability, 
became the favorites of aspiring bishops — their helps, 
their messengers, their mouthpiece — without rivalry ex- 
cited, while ruling elders w^ere ugly obstacles in the way 
of their progress. It needed only the promotion of 
deacons to some degree of ministry in the word to bring 
them above the elders' bench in popular estimation,. and 
so work out of existence that sturdy line of dissent which 
would continue the primitive simplicity of elder. Thus 
deaconship was compromised and the original eldership 
suppressed on the pathway of return to sacerdotalism by 
men who claimed to be successors of those founders that 
had called for the election of deacons to " serve tables " 
in order that commissioned preachers might " give them- 
selves to prayer and the ministry of the word." One- 
ness of the commission to preach and to baptize had no 



PARITY OF MINISTERS. 267 

number three between the lines to be discovered only 
when the Supper would be turned to sacrifice, the elder- 
ship to priesthood, and the oversight of one flock to lord- 
ship over many flocks in the heritage of God. 

To say that two of " the seven " originally ordained as 
deacons — Stephen and Philip — must have been preachers, 
according to the record of their lives in Scripture, is too 
much, and therefore nothing, in the argument for mak- 
ing a preacher of the deacon, because these two — and 
probably the whole number — were preachers before this 
appointment in the ministry of gifts, without previous 
ordination at all, as the qualification premised for the 
seven was " honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and 
wisdom/' And the seven themselves are not called 
" deacons " at all, but " men appointed over this busi- 
ness" to superintend the work of deacons, already in 
the Church from of old, and needing now to be recon- 
structed. This was the overtask which the main wit- 
nesses for Christ, "whom he named ^apostles,''' were 
obliged to decline for the stress of public ordinances — 
prayer and preaching — which were the burden of their 
testimony. Speaking for men to God and for God to 
men was the double work of witnessing for Christ that 
continually engaged the power and wisdom of apostles. 
Acts vi. 1-6. 

Parity in Jurisdiction. 
V. Beyond the limits of one parish no one man was 
authorized in primitive Christianity as a bishop to ex- 
tend his jurisdiction. Territorial extension, which had 
a plurality of particular churches included, was governed 
by representative assemblies only, in all its common con- 
cerns of church-work and rule. The minute details of 



268 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

episcopal duty in the smallest oversight were enough to 
fill the hands of Gregory Thaumaturgus at the middle 
of the third century, the miracle of whose pastorate in 
New Csesarea, Pontus, consisted in finding but seventeen 
Christians when he assumed it and in leaving but seven- 
teen pagans there at his death. Early in the second 
century Ignatius was born, and about the middle of that 
century wrote to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, concern- 
ing the duties of a bishop : " Give thyself to prayer 
without ceasing. Be watchful, possessing a sleepless 
spirit. Speak to every man separately as God enables 
thee. Bear the infirmities of all. Let not widows be 
neglected. Be thou, after the Lord, their protector and 
friend. Let nothing be done without thy consent. Let 
your assembling together be of frequent occurrence; 
seek after all by name. Do not despise either male 
or female slaves, yet neither let them be puffed up 
with conceit, but rather let them submit themselves 
the more for the glory of God, that they may obtain 
from God a better liberty. Let them not wish to be set 
free at the public expense, that they be not found slaves 
to their own desires.^' Many similar citations might be 
made from apostolic Fathers which manifestly imply the 
relation of a bishop to the particular charge of a pastor's 
life in one parish only, and the qualifications for such a 
life laid down in Paul's directions to Timothy. Not a 
line or a word in all their literature implies the suffragan 
relation of any bishop to another bishop; and the quota- 
tions above are taken purposely from Ignatius, who is 
the oracle of that age to modern prelacy. In the con- 
cluding paragraph of that letter to Polycarp he asks 
him to write similar letters to ^' the adjacent churches," 
because he, Ignatius, was unable to do it on account of 



PARITY OF MINISTERS. 269 

being hurried '^suddenly to sail" away from his own 
church. These incidental topics and allusions evidently 
reveal the fact that the parochial bishop was not subject 
to a diocesan overseer in the second century, though in 
equal correspondence with other bishops for mutual en- 
couragement and counsel. 

But toward the end of the same century historians 
find the leaven of ambition working out upon the whole 
lump from the strong and rich churches in large centres 
of population where the bishops of single parishes, when 
their people began to colonize and create other parishes, 
followed them with reluctant leave or propelling consent 
in order to secure a patronage over them and bind them 
to the mother-church as chapels of ease ; and, if no 
longer dependent upon her in the way of support, lean- 
ing upon her with reverence and accepting still the over- 
sight of her bishop even in the subjection, to some extent, 
of their new and probably younger bishops they had 
chosen. The subordination of newer churches in the 
process of Church extension became a measure of peace 
and unity in this way, and so reconciled the most watch- 
ful and devoted men of the generations, then passing 
through persecutions without and heresies within, to 
any form of expediency that seemed to compact the 
visible Church and make her frontage of militancy 
" fair as the moon, and clear as the sun, and terrible 
as an army with banners." 

Developed in this way through turbulent times in the 
world, the Christian Church became a power on earth 
and attracted the eye of imperial ambition itself, which 
hitherto had been hostile. A political organization was 
now discovered as practicable among the spiritual hosts 
which were increasing, harmless, and yet invincible. 



270 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

How far the sagacity of Constantine, tluis informerl, 
may have led to his conversion and made the halo of 
that cross which he was said to have seen in the heavens 
we need not conjecture in this connection. It is enough 
to know that in the establishment of Christianity by his 
power he consigned to her synods the internal and re- 
served to himself the external construction of the Chris- 
tian Church. This was modeled after the fashion of his 
empire, and of course with gradations of rank, aristo- 
cratic inequality, bishop over bishop, synod over synod, 
with a last resort to his imperial chamber to ratify every 
constitution and confirm every decision, both external and 
internal. Even the vocabulary of State, army and pub- 
lican was now transfused into the language of apostolical 
religion, and hence ''diocese" became the designation of 
that larger field in which a parish was made a smaller 
and subordinate part by the decree of an emperor, the 
bishops of particular churches being already, as we have 
seen, too well prepared, and even eager, in the dominant 
cities, to accept this modification. 

The dissenters of that age were thus constrained by 
civil despotism and ecclesiastical encroachment com- 
bined. The country bishops or pastors — called cAw- 
episcopi — resisted and were repressed by councils made 
up of prelates alone. The ruling elders — always an 
obstacle to the ambition of metropolitan pastors — were 
excluded from councils, and even, at length, from their 
benches in the Christian synagogue, and the deacons, 
more tractable, were uplifted over elders, graded in their 
own rank and made preachers — all but the newly-made 
subdeacon. Human and not divine, imperial and not 
republican, forceful and not persuasive, despotic and not 
free, is the origin of diocese in the Church of Christ, 



PARITY OF MINISTERS. 271 

and such a secular spread of spiritual jurisdiction natu- 
rally and soon led to intolerance and persecution. All 
the pretensions to unity of external organization — which 
Avas the plausible pretext of the beginning — were un- 
masked so much by quarrels among diocesans in the 
Middle Ages, who lived and fought with one another 
like feudal barons, that a wonder in Church history is 
how such a perversion of bishoprics could have passed 
into any branch of the Protestant Church. No sanction 
from canonical scripture could ever be found or ever 
attempted fairly. As well might we go to the Bible for 
the whole pile of gradation made by Constantine upon 
his platform, beginning with himself as the head — 
patriarchs, exarchs, metropolitans, archbishops, and 
bishops diocesan, all alike the creation of his profane 
omnipotence. 

About a thousand years before the great Reformation 
some apocryphal transcriber had contrived surreptiti- 
ously to insert two postscripts in the sacred canon 
apparently to this very intent, that the subsequent 
Bibles might appear to give apostolical sanction to this 
diocesan episcopacy. One of these we see at the end of 
the Second Epistle to Timothy and the other at the end 
of Titus, the one reading thus of Timothy : " Ordained 
the first bishop of the church of the Ephesians f the 
other of Titus : '' Ordained the first bishop of the 
church of the Cretians.'' With eminent candor as well 
as learning the recent Revision of the New Testament, 
begun and finished under the auspices of English and 
American scholars of high official standing in the re- 
spective churches, ignores the postscripts at length and 
utterly expunges them, but the presumption that Tim- 
othy and Titus had each a diocese by appointment of 



272 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

the apostles yet liugers behind and calls for continued 
review. 

(1) Timothy was an evangelist expressly so called 
(2 Tim. iv. 5) — Titus also, though not so directly styled 
in the text of inspiration. His work to which he was 
appointed was the same precisely as that of Timothy, 
and, like him, he is called " my own son '^ by the apostle 
Paul, and also " my partner and fellow-helper." 2 Cor. 
viii. 23. Evangelists were also regarded as next to the 
apostles, being their companions, deputies, helpers, agents ; 
and it was no more compatible with their vocation to 
become bishops of any degree with a fixed loc^l super- 
intendency than with that of Paul himself. They were 
always actually travelling or making arrangements for 
travel and change. Thus, in these very same docu- 
ments where they have been so artfully countersigned 
as bishops we have the plainest internal evidence that 
they were not such. Although at the beginning of the 
letters to Timothy the apostle wrote, "As I besought 
thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Mace- 
donia,'' etc., he writes at the end, '' Do thy diligence to 
come shortly unto me ;" '^ Take Mark, and bring him 
with thee ; for he is profitable to me for the ministry ;" 
" The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou 
comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially 
the parchments.'' Surely these are not congruous in- 
junctions to be laid upon a bishop of paramount au- 
thority and permanent abode at Ephesus. Similar 
exactly is the correspondence with Titus. At the 
beginning we read, " For this cause left I thee in Crete, 
that thou shouldest set in order the things that are 
wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had 
appointed thee." At the end we read, '^ Be diligent 



PARITY OF MINISTERS. 273 

to come unto me to Nicopolis ; for I have deterraiued 
there to winter ;'' " Bring Zenas the lawyer and Apollos 
on their journey diligently, that nothing be wanting 
unto them." On the whole face of the pastoral Epis- 
tles we have strongly marked the distinct enumeration 
of ascension-gifts in Eph. iv. 11: "He gave some, 
apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, evangelists ; 
and some, pastors and teachers.'^ Pastors are identical 
with bishops in the New-Testament sense, and therefore 
bishops are different and distinct from evangelists alike 
in the name and in the narratives of New-Testament 
history, where no bishop over bishop is ever even 
hinted at. 

(2) Beyond the supplementary help rendered to the 
apostle — which, of course, must be extraordinary — there 
is nothing special in the functions of those evangelists 
that is at all above the prerogatives of a pastor in one 
particular church, the parochial bishop. They are com- 
missioned to ordain elders, and that with the most care- 
ful discrimination of the proper qualifications which 
indicate a prior call of God to the office; and these 
elders are declared to be the same as bishops in the 
rank of office, the two designations being always and 
undoubtedly convertible in Holy Scripture. These 
elders or bishops thus inducted are in turn authorized 
to select and ordain others like themselves, the rule of 
transmission being so clearly given (2 Tim. ii. 2) to 
commit what had been heard from the apostle or his 
deputies to " faithful men who would be able to teach 
others also." To say that these evangelists, in trans- 
mitting office on such a level, were individual men, and 
therefore not a Presbytery or elders in so acting, but 
diocesan bishops, no matter by what name we call them, 

18 



274 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

because a lone individual officiating so means, of course, 
a superiority of rank to the elders made by his hand, 
is the logical vice of begging the question to which our 
prelatic brethren seem to be so much addicted. We 
deny the premise that any officer is to be considered 
superior to another merely because he is alone at his 
duty ; we deny that the power of ordination must be 
reposed in a bishop of higher grade than the bishop 
or elder invested by his hands. We affirm that the 
ordainer and the ordained are equal to each other, and 
that the ordaining elder may be alone as a committee 
and representative of his Presbytery, either at home or 
abroad, in home or foreign missionary fields, just as 
Timothy and Titus were each alone as charged by the 
apostle Paul. Nothing is more familiar in the solemnity 
of ordination by a Presbytery than the charge to an 
individual to be faithful in doing what he can do only 
as one of a plurality or a quorum individualized in the 
special duties of a Presbytery as well as in the common 
and separate duties of the pastor or evangelist. 

(3) The argument for a superior grade of office in the 
ordainer because he was alone at Ephesus and at Crete 
in exercising the function is also inconsistent with an- 
other averment — that elders existed at both these places 
before the mission of Timothy to one and of Titus to 
the other. On this presumption it is argued against us 
that Presbyteries or elders must have been superseded 
or set aside by the advent of Timothy and Titus re- 
spectively to perform ordinations alone, and therefore 
the method of diocesan episcopacy must have been 
inaugurated there and then. Here, again, is the petitio 
prmcipii exemplified in mere assertion. On the inspec- 
tion of those pastoral Epistles there is no evidence that 



PARITY OF MINISTERS. 275 

either of the evangelists acted alone in ordaining or that 
any organizations had been previonsly made in the cities 
of Crete ; and if there had been, the disorders existing 
and the dangers impending among the crude beginnings 
and the inexperienced officers of either or both those fields 
required the visitation of an apostle or his legate to set 
in order things which were wanting and leave explicit 
and exact instructions to guide the people and their 
elders in doctrine, usage, election and government alike. 
The formative state of a social compact, civil or sacred, 
needs outside and extraordinary influence to make it 
normal. 

(4) In order to widen the jurisdiction and to elevate 
the rank of bishop over bishop, the advocates of prelacy 
have contrived a singular dilemma for themselves in the 
chronology of Ephesus. The First Epistle to Timothy, 
wdiich contains most of the proper directions for episco- 
pal oversight, must have been written either before or 
after the memorable interview of Paul himself with the 
elders of Ephesus mentioned in Acts xx. 28. If before, 
and the evangelist was then abiding at Ephesus as an 
overeeer of bishops, why does not the apostle refer them 
to the diocesan already set over them for the regulation 
of elders and everything else pertaining to pastoral duty 
and responsibility ? Why does he say, without mention 
of Timothy at all, whom he had settled there to say the 
same things, "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and 
to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath 
made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which 
he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know, 
that after my departing, shall grievous wolves enter in 
among you, not sparing the flock"? Had their diocesan 
become already incapable or unfaithful or non-resident 



276 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

in two years or less after his consecration, and he a 
spiritual sou of Paul, possessing the miraculous faith 
of the age at the putting on of the apostle^s own hands? 
Or, taking the later date, after this meeting of the elders 
with Paul at Miletus, we resort to the subsequent Epis- 
tle of Paul to the Ephesians themselves, that sublimest 
of sacred letters, replete with the mystery and majesty 
of the gospel Church, and yet abounding with instruc- 
tions of the pastoral care, minutely and familiarly given 
as a superior bishop could write, and yet no word of 
Timothy being there as a bishop of any sort and at 
any time. Tychicus, and not Timothy, has the recom- 
mendation at the close: '^A beloved brother and faith- 
ful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all 
things, whom I have sent unto you for the same pur- 
pose, that ye might know our affairs, and that he might 
comfort your hearts." On one and either horn of this 
dilemma must hang the claim of prelacy, for the itiner- 
ating evangelism of Timothy could not possibly be im- 
paled by either. 



CHAPTER XI. 

RULING ELDERS. 

THESE are the aboriginal elders of the Church, con- 
tinued through all dispensations. They existed 
before Moses, with patriarchal descent, and were called 
into the service of religion before its revelation was 
penned, or " the God of Abraham " would not have 
said to Moses, " Go and gather the elders of Israel to- 
gether ;" " And thou shalt come, thou and the elders of 
Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto 
him. The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us," 
etc. These commissioners of the Most High were also 
representatives of the people, for another familiar desig- 
nation is " elders of the people.'^ And yet, lest their 
close identification with the represented should ever lead 
the people to regard them as laical, and not official in 
connection with Moses, and this great prophet should be 
left without an order of special organization to hold up 
his hands in the burden of that ministry to which he 
was called, the Almighty deigned to charter a selection 
of that eldership to help him : " And the Lord said 
unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders 
of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the 
people and officers over them : and bring them unto the 
tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand 
there with thee. And I will come down and talk with 

277 



278 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

thee there ; and I will take of the spirit which is upon 
thee, and will put it upon them ; and they shall bear 
the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it 
not thyself alone.'^ Num. i. 16, 17. Thus "the church 
in the wilderness " had ruling elders, provided by divine 
appointment, to counsel and encourage their missionary- 
leader; and these are called by inspiration "officers,'' 
and not " laymen," and imbued with the same spirit as 
Moses himself. 

This divine ordination has never been revoked. When 
the Hebrew pilgrimage was ended and the settlements 
in Canaan were completed, "elders of the city" and 
" elders of every city " composed the main authority of 
government, in local distribution as well as national 
Sanhedrin, and of course that theocratic constitution of 
the Old-Testament people would have elders to rule in the 
ecclesia as well as in the municipality — the conventicle 
of moral and religious instruction as well as the bench 
of justice at the gate. A plurality of ruling elders in 
session became the germ of organism for assemblies of 
revealed religion under all circumstances of the nation 
— under judges, under kings, in empire and in captivity. 
No political revolution even where Church and State 
were united, no change of dynasty, no loss of temple 
and altar, no lapse of covenant or decadence of piety, 
could abolish this one feature of eldership in the ancient 
Church. It waited intact for the redemption of Israel, 
when a greater than Moses would come to gather elders, 
to be joined with him and share his spirit in the mis- 
sion of his ministry. 

Ruling and teaching are inseparable from each other 
in some proportion. The ruler, judicial or executive, 
must explain to some extent the law which is applied 



RULING ELDERS. 279 

with authority ; the teacher must govern to some degree 
the attention, decorum and docility with which instruc- 
tion is received. The officer must be interpreter of his 
own functions, to himself and others ; the instructor 
must exercise the rules of logic and common sense by 
which men are convinced and persuaded, or he is un- 
worthy of the name. Men of age and of experience 
denoted in the name of elder, senior, presbyter, English, 
Latin or Greek, have in all ages been regarded as ordi- 
narily fittest for both ruling and teaching ; and conse- 
quently the distinction possible to be made among elders 
in the official sense must be a difference of proportion 
in these constituent elements of qualification — that is, 
endowment and education of speech will make one elder 
a teacher chiefly ; and good sense, with becoming tact, 
without comparative learning, will make another chiefly 
a ruler; and thus in every age the generic elders natu- 
rally divide, the distinction being made more or less 
apparent according to circumstances and to change of 
dispensation. 

In Old-Testament times, when Levites were dis- 
tributed in forty-eight cities through all the tribes for 
the purposes of common education, and prophets trav- 
ersed the land with the spirit and demonstration of 
natural and supernatural gifts, the province of elders 
in the Church was mainly ruling in the direction of 
exercises, of reading and speaking and of administering 
discipline. In the absence of stated supply, Levite, 
prophet or gifted passenger whom they could trust 
in addressing the people, the elders would designate 
one of themselves, with consent of the congregation, 
to conduct the ordinances of worship and instruction. 
It was in accordance with these traditions that our 



280 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

Lord and his disciples were everywhere so freely ad- 
mitted to the teacher's desk in the synagogues. It 
was in the tacit approval of such regulations of order 
and continuance of the same in furtherance of the 
gospel that the New Testament was knit to the Old 
in form, and that elderships were virtually ordained 
for ever to govern the Church of Christ. 

While apostles were in the field, and the accom- 
panying ministry of gifts, without ordination by man, 
elders seemed to be engaged in ruling only. Being a 
constituent portion of the first general council at Jeru- 
salem (Acts XV.), they participated in deliberation and de- 
cision without prominence in speaking and debate, though 
effective in voting and zealous in acting harmoniously 
with the great witnesses and the gifted " brethren," the 
apostolical associates and assistants going ^^to and fro" 
with the gospel in those days. The settled officers in 
organized churches called '* bishops and deacons " — 
overseers and servants — were, as of old, guiding and 
guarding their flocks respectively against imposition, 
meanwhile, discriminating true missionaries from false 
in procuring itinerant supply for their ^^ synagogue," 
and conducting divine service by one or more of the 
elders when there was no Pentecostal preacher at hand. 

Some fourteen years after the general assembly at 
Jerusalem — in which the elders appeared to be all 
ruling in character — the apostle Paul, writing to Timo- 
thy, said the elder should be " apt to teach," repeating 
the same term when he wrote the Second Epistle to 
Timothy, a year later. Ch. ii. 24. In both places it is 
generical in sense, meaning both public and private 
teaching, and either active or passive, teaching or teach- 
able, in the etymon and the context, as we shall see 



RULING ELDERS. 281 

again. This predicate of the bishop or elder is there- 
fore obviously susceptible of distinction in kind as well 
as in the name itself given to the officer, private, social, 
public and judicial teaching all included. 

Circumstances and events, as well as words, will make 
logical distinctions. When the elders were at length left 
alone to teach as the supernatural endowments and call- 
ing were withdrawn partially or altogether, and the 
supervening commission to preach and baptize rested 
on the benches of eldership, the traditional proportion 
between teaching and ruling must of course become 
changed : to answer the distinction of heralds and 
judges now devolved, of necessity, upon eldership 
economy. "Who will go for us?^' and "Who will stay 
with us'' in preaching the gospel of this kingdom? 
must have been the great questions of that primordial 
crisis in every congregation of believers. All the elders 
in the plurality of each particular church would not be 
qualified, nor desire, to become ministers of the word, 
and would feel it their duty and calling to abide as 
rulers in the church and teachers in the family apart. 
And, on the other hand, one or more of the elders 
existing or of the people desiring to be elders, being 
inwardly moved by the Spirit and externally recognized 
as apt and blameless, would be designated for this min- 
istry by the other elders and by consent of the people.* 

Thus the distinction between teaching and ruling 
elders would naturally begin to be made, and the 
emphasis of it would be increased apace with the 
difference of occupation and diligence therein of the 
preacher, being given to it " wholly," and his " profit- 

* Jerome, Ep. 146, "Ad Evang.," affirms tliat the elders elected 
the bishop from their own bench at Alexandria until the year 265. 



282 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

iug" more and more appearing to all men. Though 
the same episcopate, or oversight, remained common to 
the whole bench of elders, the title " bishop " would be 
given especially to the teaching elder, whose whole time 
and ability must be given to its duties. The name, the 
qualifications and the total consecration exonerating him 
from the ordinary obligation to live by the work of his 
own hands must make distinction enough to require 
another ordination to signalize the new functions with 
which a standing ministry is clothed as apostles leave 
the field to succeeding elders. The distinction, as it 
widens, will certainly make another class of elders, 
entitled to a distinct ordination, but never so as to 
supersede and abolish the residuary portion of elder- 
ship or deprive them of the name. On the contrary, 
it enhances the importance of this order as auxiliary 
and indispensable in proportion to the advancement and 
the success of teaching elders. 

Deference to the word of God should ask no more 
of the Scriptures than this inferential expose of facts 
implied in the revelation expressly given to justify 
the distinction made by Presbytery among the elders 
that compose it. The fair presumption of common 
sense and the deduction of sound reason from premises 
of inspiration are only stimulated to legitimate con- 
jecture in filling up the outline and formulating the in- 
duction by hints in the Bible for the exercise of our 
manhood. "Light shining in a dark place'' need not 
be a lantern in the hand for searching narrowly every 
step we take on lines of radiation which point us to the 
object we should attain, and which start us in the right 
direction. We have not one ray for prelacy in the New 
Testament, either to begin at or to end with. Hitching 



RULING ELDERS. 283 

its line back upon the shadows of priesthood and upon 
three orders in temple-service of old, it has only dark- 
ness and silence in passing by our Lord and his dis- 
ciples where they went to church, and added to the 
church daily of the saved, and ordained elders in every 
new church that was organized by their ministry. But 
the constituents of Presbytery — teaching and ruling in 
different proportion, making distinction of classes by the 
force of circumstances, beginning at the exodus from 
Egypt by divine appointment, and never ceasing on 
the luminous track of sacred history — met the recog- 
nition of Christ and his apostles most conspicuously 
at ^' the fulness of time/' Receiving new direction and 
final instruction from inspired apostles, they are neces- 
sarily distinguished again for all time, as at the first, 
into classes for the work of the ministry and the gov- 
ernment of the Church. 

Warrant for the Distinct Office. 
1. In prescription, time is warrant of title, and the 
legation of Moses, in which ruling elders of Israel were 
made a distinct order of diplomatic agents at the court 
of Pharaoh and a special body of counsellors to assist 
the great prophet through all the perplexities and dis- 
couragements of his charge, may surely be considered 
antiquity enough to establish a title — especially so when 
it is revealed that they had the office before that appoint- 
ment. And the name is indefinitely historical — so much 
that the memory of man " runneth not to the contrary." 
Remote as the patriarchal form, the first one visible, 
and widely as terms of respect for constituted authority 
and conventional dignity among men, can be traced in 
the language of any people, we find the notions of elder 



284 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

and ruler, elder and teacher, elder and representative, 
combined with, and yet distinguished from, each other. 

When we come to the advent of our Lord, we find 
the prescription of elders in office universally respected, 
and these familiarly known as rulers, chiefly judicial, 
and that in the synagogue. Other offices originated 
then for the teaching of all nations, beginning at Jeru- 
salem. A precursor in the desert preaching repentance, 
threescore and ten evangelists throughout Judea to her- 
ald the coming of Jesus in person, a ministry of gifts 
when the Spirit of power descended to speak with 
tongues and to prophesy, and, above all, the twelve apos- 
tles, witnesses and preachers everywhere they could go, 
from Jerusalem to Babylon and from Babylon to Rome, 
— the origin, occasion and calling of all these ministers 
of the word are signalized in sacred history, and for the 
most part minutely recorded ; but not a word is written 
about the origin of elders, so expressly mentioned of 
old, and the office came to be noticed now only when 
called for the organization of churches anew. Two 
things are obviously indicated by this omission — the 
familiar descent of these from indefinite antiquity need- 
ing no notice of origin again, and their time-honored 
exercise, at and after the advent, in directing "govern- 
ments" and "discerning of spirits." As representatives 
of the people when extraordinary preachei's withdrew 
from the Church, the elders in her "ministry of orders" 
received the behest of the great commission to teach, 
baptize and disciple men throughout all the world. 

2. The plurality of elders ordained in every church 
(Acts xiv. 23) evinces a variety in functions of this 
office and its exercise enough to divide the number and 
make a classific distinction among them, else the mis- 



RULING ELDERS. 285 

sionary spirit of that age would condemn the organism 
for superfluity and waste of provision. Many of the 
earliest Christian churches were very small at the begin- 
ning — even fewer in membership than was the old syna- 
gogue minimum of ten persons, including this plurality 
of elders. We read among the postapostolic Fathers 
the figures 17, 12 or 8 in the organization at first; and 
if all the elders ordained are to be considered as one 
class only of authorized teachers, can it be credible that 
two or more ministers of the gospel were assigned to the 
care of seveiiteeu souls, when the harvest was so great 
and the laborers few, millions perishing in pagan dark- 
ness and the ministry called to be expansive as the light 
of day? "But I say have they not heard? Yes, 
verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their 
words to the end of the world." If a church in our 
day, ten times the number, should engross a plurality 
of preachers for their own exclusive use, what would be 
thought of their missionary spirit in such a selfish con- 
centration of available force? The New-Testament 
eldership can be plural consistently in each particular 
church only upon the hypothesis of a synagogue bench 
continued of local officers ordained as ruling elders in 
the exercise of a spiritual oversight. 

3. Ruling officially is more than one side of the ge- 
neric elder in Scripture. It is made a whole character, 
of distinct office, in that profusion of distinctions with 
which the Christian era began its ordinations. Super- 
natural and transient as many of them were, they all 
converged in one great principle of organization — that 
a gift from God in the endowment by his Spirit is the 
foundation of office in the Church and qualifying fitness 
to exercise it. When the gift is withdrawn, the office 



286 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

will cease, in fair exegesis of the warrant, \yiien the 
gift abides, the office it creates may be discriminated 
easily as permanent, and nothing is more apparent in 
observation than the perpetuity of " ruling well '^ in the 
Church through all her generations which are not of the 
apostasy. Take up the catalogues of primitive bestow- 
ment which have mingled the transient and the per- 
manent together — such as Rom. xii. 6-8 and 1 Cor. xii. 
28 — and subtract the detail of gifts confessedly mar- 
vellous and transient ; the remainder contains, " he that 
ruleth with diligence^' in the former, and "govern- 
ments " in the latter passage, indicating alike the charac- 
ter of a distinct office in the Church for all time. The 
first enumeration begins with the preamble, " Having 
then gifts differing according to the grace that is given 
to us f the second begins with the familiar words of 
divine institution, " God hath set some in the church, 
first;'' etc., the recital making "governments" a charac- 
ter of office quite as distinctly as " teachers " or " apos- 
tles " themselves. Distinction is made of these charac- 
ters one from another sharply as language can make 
it by adversative particles, ordinal enumeration and 
challenging interrogatories in recapitulation : " Are all 
apostles ? are all prophets ? are all teachers ?" etc. ; and, 
though it is not said, " are all governments ?" the reason 
is that governments, to some extent, are included in all 
teaching offices, while teaching is not included to the 
same extent in governments. 

While we notice the transient character of many 
primitive offices when " workers of miracles " were in 
the field, we must not conclude that no trace of these 
remained upon the Church after the gifts on which they 
were founded were withdrawn. Each office in the min- 



RULTNQ ELDERS. 287 

istiy of orders iuherited enrichment with principles of 
which they were indicative, and the permanent realized 
as legacy much importance from the typical use of the 
miraculous in the eli'usiou of Pentecost. For example, 
the office of teaching elder groups in its province " diver- 
sities of tongues," " helps," interpretation of prophecy, 
and all the varieties of utterance imported in ^' prophe- 
sying ;" and the longer it continues in the world, the 
more conspicuous become tliese proper accomplishments 
of the preacher. The ruling elder also inherits from 
that primitive profusion " governments " in the original 
sense of skilful direction, ''discerning of spirits" in the 
wise discrimination of false teachers who would impose 
upon the flock over which they are made overseers; and 
the deacon shares in such inheritance ''gifts of healings," 
" giving with simplicity," " shewing mercy with cheer- 
fulness." 

These groups of typical realization add immensely to 
the import of our permanent offices in the Church, and 
in proportion to the increase of importance must be also 
the conspicuity of our threefold distinction among them. 
The cincture of assimilated functions on each standing 
column of our temple not only increases the beauty of 
adornment and the proportion of weight respectively, 
but challenges comparison also, and signalizes difference 
of entablature and wreathing which will make intelli- 
gent observers appreciate distinction as well as consistent 
utility in the structure. 

4. Distinction between the teaching and the ruling elder 
is expressed in 1 Tim. v. 17 : "Let the elders that rule 
well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they 
who labor in the word and doctrine." That profound 
theologian and learned exegete of the seventeenth cen- 



288 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

tury Dr. John Owen, though not a Presbyterian, thus 
expresses his interpretation of our proof-texts : '^ Elders 
not called to teach ordinarily, or administer the sacra- 
ments, but to assist and help in the rule and government 
of the Church, are mentioned in the Scripture, Rom. xii. 
8; 1 Cor. xii. 28; 1 Tim. v. 17.''* Dr. Whitaker, of. 
the same century, regius professor of divinity at Cam- 
bridge, said, " If all that rule well be worthy of double 
honor, especially they that labor in the word and doc- 
trine, it is plain there be some who did not so labor, for 
if all had been of this description the meaning would 
have been absurd ; but the word ' especially ' points out 
a diiference. If I should say that all who study well at 
the university are worthy of double honor, especially 
they that labor at the study of theology, I mean that 
all do not apply themselves to the study of theology, 
or I speak nonsense. Wherefore I confess tliat to be 
the most genuine sense according to which pastors and 
teachers are distinguished from those who only gov- 
erned." With him. Archbishop Ussher, Dr. Lightfoot, 
Dr. Whitby, Archbishop Potter, Bishop Burnet, Dr. 
Dodwell, and others too numerous to be mentioned, 
agreed on the side of prelacy ; and on the other side — 
the Independent and Congregational — Drs. Doddridge 
and Dwight, and Dr. Ladd of this generation, and many 
others, agree with Dr. Owen substantially as . above 
cited; to which might be added pungent expressions 
of Dr. Owen elsewhere on the attempted evasions of 
this main scriptural proof. 

When a passage is faithfully rendered as this one is, 
the interpretation of common sense is best ; and we 
affirm that no unprejudiced reader would hesitate to 
* Owen's Worh, vol. xix. p. 535. 



RULING ELDERS. 289 

say that here are indicated two classes of elders in the 
Christian Church — one ordained to rule, and the other 
to rule and to teach. If all elders of the New Testa- 
ment are alike in being preachers, and must, of course, 
be rulers also in the Church, how could there be con- 
sistency in giving double honor for half duty, and still 
more abundant honor for the other half of duty — 
double honor to this side, and especially to the other 
side, of the same office ? Surely this looks like frivolity 
of exegesis. As it is hard to poll the verdict of common 
sense, however, let us count a few plausibilities of the 
opposite opinion. Dr. Wardlaw, in his keen review of 
Dr. King on the office of ruling elder, lays down the 
premises on which we are willing to risk the argument 
on this notable text. ''According to what may be 
called invariable usage," says he, '' it must be under- 
stood as representing those who are described in the 
latter part of the verse as comprehended in the more 
general description of the former — not as a distinct class 
of persons, but a select portion of the same class, distin- 
guished by a specified particularity." Precisely so, ex- 
cepting the gratuitous negative expressed by Dr. Ward- 
law. All the elders mentioned in the verse are indeed 
the general class, and do comprehend those who " labor 
in the word and doctrine " as a " specified particularity." 
All elders were at first ordained as rulers, and the speci- 
fied particularity which supervened upon them by apos- 
tolical direction to minister as teachers also in word and 
in doctrine necessarily distinguished and with diverse 
culture more and more into another class of elders those 
who were best qualified and deputed by their brethren, 
with suffrage of the people. We need not dispute about 
a word — '' class " — when historical facts make a distinc- 

19 



290 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

tion and the passage bears upon its face the nature of 
this difference. 

It is worthy of notice in this connection that Congre- 
gational churchmen of New England, in departing from 
the Cambridge platform, which recognized the ruling 
elder as a distinct office, have glossed our Authorized 
Version of the text (1 Tim. v. 17) in this way: 
^^ Especially , they laboring in loord and doctrine ; or in 
this way : Especially as they labor in ivord and doctrine ; 
which gives essentially a new turn to the passage.''* 
Of course Dr. Wardlaw's " select portion of the same 
class '^ may be dispensed with on this variety of interpre- 
tation, for the intensive adverb " especially '' is thus ap- 
plied to ail the elders indicated in the text. Such a 
version also dispenses with the demonstrative force of 
the pronoun " they '^ (of), which the recent Revision of 
the New Testament restores and increases properly by 
substituting " those '' for ^' they." It also reduces the 
original adverb {[idXcaray " especially ") from the super- 
lative to the positive degree, meaning ^' much " instead 
of "more" or "most." In these two degrees it is in- 
variably distinctive as well as intensive in the Holy 
Scriptures; and, as this one Avord is so often alleged to 
be the pivotal point for a warrant to the ruling elder's 
office, we should, to justify our Westminster position, 
patiently collate all the passages in which it is used. 

The first three instances in the acts of Paul (Acts xx. 
38 ; XXV. 26 ; xxvi. 3) may be grouped together as the 
slightest of all in making distinction, and yet it appears 
to any attention of reading : " Sorrowing most of all 
[fmXiara) for the words which he spake, that they should 
see his face no more." Here the utterance of a final de- 

* Prof. Thonifus C. Uphara. 



RULING ELDERS. 291 

parture is a distinct as well as chief cause of their sorrow. 
" Specially {jidhaTa) before thee, O King Agrippa/' dis- 
tinguishes Agrippa from " Festus, the chief captains and 
principal men of i\\Q city." And it expresses distinction 
again when he compliments Agrippa for being best quali- 
fied to judge : '^Expert in all customs and questions which 
are among the Jews.'^ Gal. vi. 10: ^'Let us do good unto 
all men, especially unto them who are of the household of 
faith;" Phil. iv. 22: *^A11 the saints salute you, chiefly 
(^fxdXtara) they that are of Caesar's household ;" 1 Tim. 
iv. 10 : " Who is the Saviour of all men, specially of 
those that believe ;" 1 Tim. v. 8 : '^ But if any provide 
not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, 
he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel ;" 
2 Tim. iv. 13 : "And the books, but especially the parch- 
ments ;" Tit. i. 10 : " For there are many unruly and 
vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circum- 
cision ;" Philem. 16: "A brother beloved, specially to 
me," — thus far Paul ; and now one citation more, 2 Pet. 
ii. 10 : " But chiefly {fidXtara) them that walk after the 
flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise govern- 
ment." Here the apostle evidently distinguishes the 
debauched from the unjust in the certainty of punish- 
ment awaiting "the unjusf in the day of judgment. 
Such is the exhaustive collation of uses for this term. 
And not once is it used intensively without suggesting 
distinction of some sort. Even without the adversative 
particle {ds) in the original, it signifies distinction, and 
this always a more special category than the premises 
first aflirmed or denied. And this answers precisely 
to the specialty of a teacliing eldership devolved on 
the common bench of rulers when extraordinary teach- 
ers, commissioned without ordination and inspired, were 



292 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

about to leave the ministry of orders fairly adjusted for 
all time to follow. 

Other theories of the distinction, admitting it to be 
somehow couched in this crucial text, should be noticed 
briefly in our deference to the opinions of worthy men. 
It cannot be a distinction between rulers in a general 
sense who are Christian laymen, and ministers, who, as 
Christian teachers, must exercise ruling in the Church 
only ; for the context, both before and after, confines the 
application of both phrases to church-officers alone, and 
the elders that rule well, as we have seen, must include 
in its generic sense the teachers who are also elders 
honored specially for their labor in the word. Besides, 
the word TrpoeffvcoTS^, in its participial form, is used in 
1 Thess. 5. 12 for officers " which are over you in the 
Lord." It cannot be that these " elders who rule well " 
are deacons, for such are uniformly represented as serv- 
ants in the church. Nor can it be that they are the aged 
and worn-out preachers of the word, for then the double 
honor should be " especially '' rendered to these, and not 
to those who have not yet made full proof of their min- 
istry and come so near finishing their course and reach- 
ing their crown. Nor can it be that they are the local 
and settled ministers of a particular church, while those 
who " labor in the w^ord and doctrine " are the itinerant 
preachers of the age distinguished for more abounding, 
exposed and self-consecrated service, for travelling preach- 
ers are nowhere in Scripture called " elders,'^ and seem to 
have all passed away with the exit of apostles and the 
ministry of gifts. And such a gloss would spoil the 
logic of this text, in which a general class of elders 
in the first part comprehends, with '' specialty " pre- 
fixed, a select portion of itself in the second part of the 



RULING ELDERS. 293 

sentence. Besides, both designations are applied in 1 
Thess. V. 12 to the ordinary and settled officers of each 
church. Nor can the distinction be between ordinary 
ministers of the word and those who labor with extra- 
ordinary zeal and faithfulness, for that would require 
invidious embarrassment of the people called to make 
the discrimination, and would occasion partisan strife 
and animosity among them. And such a gloss would 
spoil the rhetoric of the text with a false antithesis. 
This would be made by putting an adverb, xaXcot;, in 
the first clause, against xo7:ca)VT£(:, a participle, in the 
second, whereas the true antithesis in words must be 
made by putting those of the same class in grammar 
against each other. Besides, this one word xonuovre^, 
'^ who labor," expresses the ordinary toil of a pastor in 
the particular church (1 Thess. v. 12); and when the 
apostle would express abounding and extraordinary 
labor, he has additional words for the diction — noXXd or 
Tzepiaaorepov or poydoc:. (See Rom. xvi. 12; 2 Cor. xi. 
27 ; 1 Thess. ii. 9 ; 2 Thess. iii. 8.) 

Another objection to the force of this proof-text for a 
distinction made among the presbyter-bishops of the 
Bible is from the context : " For the scripture saith, 
Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the 
corn. And the laborer is worthy of his hire." It is 
alleged, accordingly, that the word zcfirj^^ in the text 
translated "honor," means "hire" or "wages" — the 
stipend given to ministers of the word, and not to 
ruling elders. But we may answer that the translation 
we have is better than the criticism, being the literal 
rendering of the word, and according to the ancient 
translations as well as to the recent Revision, and also 
expressing better the main drift of the context, the 



294 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

priDciple of rewarding faithful serv^ice in office with 
revenue or with money, or with both. We may also 
observe that the omission of salary to a ruling elder 
cannot alter the warrant of his office, any more than the 
Council of Carthage in 398 altered the warrant for a 
standing ministry by ordaining that all preachers should 
work at some honest trade, and yet not fail of their 
ecclesiastical dues. But there is in this omission of pay 
to ruling elders a peculiar suggestion honorable to this 
important office — that such elders are made more exactly 
representatives of the people over whom they exercise a 
spiritual oversight in being practically identified with 
them as they support themselves by the pursuits of 
industrial life, so as to know them more intimately and 
be known by them in the sympathies of fellow-feel- 
ing and in the effective influence of a good example in 
the practice of wisdom, economy, justice, moderation 
and charity. Yet, as a matter of fact, the ruling elders 
of our system are not without the honorarium of pe- 
cuniary recompense to some extent, when their expenses 
incurred as representatives in the higher judicatories of 
the Church are actually paid out of a common treasury 
by a standing order of the Church. But now, again, 
the objector claims too much for himself on the hy- 
pothesis of homogeneous eldership in making all New- 
Testament elders to be preachers. On that supposition 
this ^' double " or abundant stipend would be enjoined 
for ruling only — not half the deserts of a faithful pas- 
tor. Double pay for half work, or less ! 

Another interpretation to be noticed makes the dis- 
tinction acknowledged in the passage to be entirely 
among teaching elders in the way of assigning double 
honor to those who preside well over assemblies of the 



ELILIMi ELDERS. 295 

Church at any grade in original or appellate jurisdiction, 
with either executive or judicial ability — men of e^kill in 
the management of aifairs, temporal, spiritual or dis- 
ciplinary, characterized by good sense and firm decision ; 
and, on the other side, more especially when the same 
persons unite consecration and hard labor in preaching 
the gospel with such ruling tact in practical influence 
over men. This exegesis, derived from the commentary 
of Dr. James MacKnight on the Epistles — over one 
hundred years old — is too much of private interpreta- 
tion as applied by him to the presidency of churches in 
the perilous times of church formation which followed 
soon after the departure of both Paul and Timothy. 
Before the new organizations could be normally settled 
the presbyter-bishop was everything both of ruling and 
of teaching for a time. Like our home missionaries 
on the frontier settlements, he had every concern in his 
hands, both material and spiritual, looking for houses to 
be hired or built for chapel use, and for men who would 
be fit for elders or deacons to help him in ministering, 
and, withal, exposed to persecutions which required su- 
preme prudence in the management of any Christian 
trust. 

But such were exceptional times, and such were 
exceptional Kpoeazajxe^. We apprehend the apostle in 
this direction designed the conditions of a permanent 
and normal organization for all time; and if so, the 
presidency implied in this term must be reduced to i\iQ 
simple moderatorship in our assemblies of elders, Avhich 
consists only in collecting and announcing the will of 
the meeting over which an elder presides. Yet such a 
sense is too feeble for this word. The moderator is not 
a ruler in any proj)er judicial sense; or if he be, and 



296 CHURCH GOVERSMEST. 

the term ;fa/?.ttic (" welP') be considered as inviting the 
people to judge who it is that rules well and better and 
best among the elders in order to proportion equitably 
his reward and make it doubly abundant, while others get 
little or none, the injunction in the text becomes invidi- 
ous, setting the people over the elders and sowing dis- 
cord, envy and mischievous rivalry as tares among the 
wheat sown by labor in word and in doctrine. Besides, 
it would devolve an impossible discrimination for any 
people to exercise — balancing merits among ministers in 
order to adjust the recompense aright, and this with a 
refinement of appreciation or of blame which few, even 
ministers of the word, are ever competent to exercise. 
It is a familiar observation to this day that many of the 
best preachers, and the most admired and sought after 
by the people, are in Presbytery innocent as children, 
and more silent in their seats, feeling and confessing 
themselves incompetent for the business of ruling or 
presiding in the assemblies. And, still more, the de- 
voted missionary, at home or abroad, who goes far hence 
to " labor in word and doctrine ^' without as yet any 
particular church to be ruled in his charge, nuist be 
excluded from the '^ especially," and, indeed, from the 
" double honor " in the first clause also, because he has 
not rule and eloquence mixed together in his qualifica- 
tions, and so mingled that the people may see how to 
separate such qualities in the same man and to assign his 
proper share in the award. 

Embarrassments like these must attend all explana- 
tions of this text which reject the distinct office of rul- 
ing elder in the first clause, and the equally distinct 
office of teaching elder in the second clause, which does 
unite both ruling and public teaching in the same man. 



RULING ELDERS. 'i^)7 

We caunot reduce the injiinctiou upon the people it 
contains to practical application without forcing upon 
them impracticable judgment delicate as it is difficult 
and maybe mischievous as it is incompetent. When 
they choose men like themselves in the ordinary engage- 
ments of business life to be their immediate representa- 
tives on the elders' bench, there is a common ground of 
sympathy and intuitive appreciation of character which 
enable them to discern the " well "-done duty of those 
who are over them in the Lord in the exercise of a 
delegated authority ; and when they would esteem them 
highly for their Avorks' sake, such esteem is awarded 
" especially " to the elder or elders over them who combine 
a righteous rec/ime with the sublime commission to preach 
the gospel and labor among them in word and in doctrine. 
Vitringa, whose treatise on the ancient synagogue as 
continued in form by the Christian church is the most 
complete and exhaustive to be found in any language, 
differs from the main body of the Reformed in the in- 
terpretation of this important text, alleging that all 
elders were made teaching elders alike, and that the 
distinction made here is only between teachers who 
attended to ruling chiefly and those who, besides ruling, 
labored in word and doctrine as pastors or evangelists. 
In the first and more general class he would compre- 
hend all doctors, professors, tutors and schoolmasters 
ordained to the ministry of the gospel, and yet turned 
aside or detained in the miscellaneous business of teach- 
ing or anything else than "laboring in the word 
and doctrine." These would have their place in the 
Presbytery or eldership of any grade, and should be 
supported well as they ruled well ; and such support 
should be rendered especially to those who gave them- 



298 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

selves wholly to the duty of preaching as well as to that 
of ruling. In this kind of gloss Vitringa has had a 
following to this day, and yet we need but few words to 
show that it is untenable. 

(1) His elders that '^rule welP' are not fairly or 
more immediately " representatives of the people," as 
compared even with preaching elders at home or abroad. 

(2) He was misled by a name which he himself gave 
the elders, whom we call representatives of the people. 
He begins and continues throughout his argument to 
call them laymen — ^' lay-elders," a title ignored by the 
Westminster Assembly and by every other intelligent 
writer who has carefully studied the subject. 

(3) He overlooked entirely the broad interpretation 
of the phrase "apt to teach," confining it to the ordained 
preachers of the word, whilst both in the original and 
in the Version it may be generalized more than even 
the word " elder " itself, and applied either to public or 
to private teaching, either by laymen or by clergymen, 
and taken in either an active or a passive sense. 

(4) The glomeratiou of teachers he puts in the first 
and more general class of elders had no existence when 
the apostle wrote the words of that text for Timothy. 
It is a singular slide for such an author as Vitringa to 
descend for Cyprianic literature in the third century to 
illustrate facts on record in the first century, ransacking 
the schools of Carthage, Alexandria, etc. to find preach- 
ing elders without charge to make up the portion which 
" ruled well " as teachers only in the apostolic time. 

(5) The practical travesty of elderships at the present 
day, in regard to " ruling well " or ruling at all, which 
his theory would produce, were worse than his anach- 
ronism. If we should inquire diligently how many 



RULING ELDERS. 299 

" H. R.'s" and ^' W. C/s'' and heads of grammar schools 
and professors in colleges and seminaries, being all cler- 
gymen, ^* rule well " without preaching the " word and 
doctrine " laboriously, we could soon discover the mis- 
take of a learned Vitringa in these premises. It is said 
there are clerical professors in our colleges, and even in 
our theological seminaries, who are hardly ever seen at 
Presbytery at all. 

We have dwelt longer on this proof-text than the 
others because it has been challenged so ably and plausi- 
bly by Presbyterian scholars, who accept the ruling 
elder's office under the color, at least, of warrant from 
Scripture, and hold it fast for its expediency while un- 
willing to generalize the word ^* elder'' so as to recog- 
nize two classes for the name. We cannot believe that 
either age or youth in criticism, with the most advanced 
erudition of our day, can do better with it than did 
George Gillespie at the Westminster Assembly of Di- 
vines, and we must conclude with Dr. Owen, vice-chan- 
cellor of Oxford, wdien giants were there ; ^^ On the first 
proposal of this text, a rational man who is unprejudiced, 
who never heard of a controversy about ruling elders, 
could hardly avoid the apprehension that here are two 
sorts of elders — some who labor in the word and doc- 
trine, and some who do not so labor. The truth is it 
was interest and prejudice that first caused some learned 
men to strain their wits to find out evasion from the 
evidence of this testimony. Being so found out, some 
of minor abilities have been entangled by them." 

Expediency of the Elder's Office. 
Although a warranted expediency is the only kind 
that is truly ecclesiastical, and the fitness or the useful- 



300 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

ness of anything ordered in the Church must have some 
antecedent color of divine intimation, yet the measures 
of sound reason for its institution are quite reciprocal in 
showing the validity of proof by interpretation alone. 
Indeed, the origin of ecclesia itself, as we have already 
seen, was largely due, in its institution, changes and 
ultimate establishment, to the circumstances of necessity 
in which the providence of God, as well as his word, 
had placed the chosen people of old. While the temple- 
service was all of positive command, and the slightest 
will-worship was utterly profane and prohibited, the 
service at the synagogue was rationally free, to be justi- 
fied, stimulated and modified by the dictates of reason 
and common sense, though, of course, ever loyal and 
obedient to that divine authority which had fixed its 
main features of polity and prescribed its exercises of 
prayer and instruction. A beautiful illustration of 
blended revelation and expediency we find in Num. xi. 
16, 17, that original organizing text already cited: "And 
the Lord said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men 
of the elders of Israel, . . . and they shall bear the 
burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not 
alone.'' Here is a glimpse of everlasting expediency. 
The Lord said it, and helpful elders were the need of 
that occasion, according to the common sense of Jethro, 
prince and priest of Midian. And these were not of 
the tribe of Levi distinctly, but of all Israel, and, with 
the spirit of Moses upon them, they made his adminis- 
tration complete. Centuries of observation prove the 
wisdom of this expedient. 

1. Teacliing elders need this office to aid them in 
government and discipline. One man is not able to 
guide the manifold interests of a flock through all the 



RULING ELDERS. 301 

circumstances which environ and temptations that beset 
them without the practical wisdom and safety afforded 
only in a plural number of counsellors, and these famil- 
iarly conversant with the people represented. To com- 
fort the sick and counsel the wayward and reclaim the 
wandering and instruct the youth in families and schools 
and Bible classes ; to enforce the admonitions and cen- 
sures of the church, so that these shall be faithfully ad- 
ministered and wisely adapted to every particular case 
of infirmity and fault, — are in part the value of a ruling 
eldership ; and these require more than the wisdom of 
one man, however gifted, energetic, experienced and de- 
voted to his duties he may be. But when we consider 
that the teaching elder is often infirm in health or in- 
experienced in youth or abstracted in study or headlong 
in temper and will, how much more needed is the bench 
of seniors who are thoroughly acquainted with the peo- 
ple and the treatment with which their minds must be 
managed and their consciences guided ! 

Even if the one teaching elder could perform well the 
multifarious duties, he ought not to be trusted with all 
of them : the best of men may be warped or perverted 
by the monopoly of power in their hands. Accumula- 
tion bends them. Pride, partiality, caprice and obsti- 
nacy ensue more or less upon the pile of responsibilities 
without distribution, whether they be civil or sacred, 
however pure the agent and well contrived the original 
institution. More churches have been ruined by the 
one-man power, even in the pastor, than by all the un- 
wisdom of Sessions and feuds of the people that can be 
counted in the annals of Presbyterianism, either at home 
or abroad. Spiritual despotism began with the subver- 
sion of this primitive office and the discontinuance of 



302 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

ruling elders. ^^The elders have saved the Church'' 
has often been said in modern times. 

2. The people need the office even more than their 
bishop does, not only for the reason stated above — that 
he must be assisted for their benefit and restrained for 
their safety — but also because the ruling elder exempli- 
fies more completely the principle of representation 
which is the heart of all good government and the 
security of all freedom. At this point of view the 
office appears to be more indispensable than that of the 
bishop himself at the first organization and in every suc- 
ceeding crisis of a vacancy or change. A Presbyterian 
church may exist without a pastor, but not without a 
ruling elder, unless it be an interval of seeking for one 
or more to fill the office ; which waiting must be short, 
or dissolution ensues. At the beginning of the Scottish 
Reformation elders manned the organization of churches 
before the preachers could be had, and often nursed them 
long before pastors were procured. So it was in America 
at the planting of our churches, and is still to be observed 
largely in waste places and in new fields of settlement. 
The vitality of this office, both before and after a teach- 
ing elder is set over them as bishop or pastor, comes 
from the sympathy and confidence of the people, who 
are always best represented by some of themselves that 
seem to be qualified with suitable gifts and graces which 
they recognize but cannot impart from themselves either 
in creating the office or in controlling it by virtue of 
their suffrage. Instincts of the purest democracy are 
fain to lodge their interests in the hands of those who 
are esteemed better than themselves in capability of 
mind and enlightenment of conscience, making repre- 
sentation at once their agency and master. Repre- 



RULING ELDERS. 303 

sentatives, and not delegates merely, are those whom 
they elect to govern themselves. 

3. In other branches of the visible Church where 
this office is not recognized or has been discarded after 
trial the functions of it are always reproduced under 
different designations, scarcely one of which is a script- 
ural name for distinct office. Prelacy is constrained to 
mitigate and to sustain its rule by the help of laymen 
called " vestrymen/' " wardens " and " delegates/' all 
deriving their authority from the people to manage 
temporal interests only or chiefly, the spiritual oversight 
being studiously confined to the episcopate or clergy, and 
that in an upper house of convocation where no layman 
can sit, nor even a presbyter, who must be enrolled in a 
lower house of convention, where the people are repre- 
sented by laymen as well. This unofficial representa- 
tion, however, in deliberating on affiiirs of the Church, 
is peculiarly American, condemned at the old English 
home — " a manifest usurpation,'' says the British Critic, 
"which must be overthrown." All officers in the Church 
that are distinct from clerical orders and designed to do 
what our elders do in sacred things are late and crude in 
systems of prelacy. Even vestrymen are called such 
after the robing-room of clergymen, and are so ill- 
defined in the sphere of duty that here and there 
even diocesan bishops complain of their aggression 
upon matters which are distinctly spiritual and epis- 
copal. The truly ancient ecclesia seems to have had 
no confusion of offices in the denomination of elder; and 
if the scriptural generalization of this word had been 
retained, the distinction of species it includes would have 
distributed the functions of the office fairly enough to 
perpetuate harmony through all interaction. 



304 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

The Wesleyan Church, with its modified episcopacy, 
has a "presiding elder" under bishops in rank, and he 
is a teaching elder as well as ruling, with a superintend- 
ence of discipline over a given district in his hands, tak- 
ing the place of both ruling and teacliing elders in this 
administration. But his exercise of judicial authority 
lacks, of course, the plurality of associate judges on 
the bench required alike by Scripture and by reason 
to constitute a safe tribunal of justice. "Tell it to the 
church," said our Lord. A single elder is not the 
church, of course, and, rationally, one man is not enough 
to satisfy all men with adjudications. The synagogue 
"three" is better than one elder in consultation. A 
plurality chosen by the people from among themselves 
like a jury of their peers will undoubtedly put an end 
to strife and preclude the murmur of dissatisfaction at 
any result better than decision by one individual, how- 
ever wise and good he may be, especially when he is 
appointed over the people rather than chosen by them- 
selves. A more interesting and valuable feature of 
Methodist polity is the class-leader — a selected instructor 
and guide of a few fellow-members who meet statedly for 
conference, mutual counsel and prayer. But this feature 
also is blended with the functions of a ruling eldership. 
Familiar teaching and leading at prayer-meetings, Bible- 
class meetings, family visitation, the examination of 
candidates for admission to full communion, and the 
dealing with members under censures of the church, 
make a wider field of usefulness than any class-leader 
occupies, and bring into exercise all the sense of spiritual 
wisdom and the charity of sanctified affections in build- 
ing up the Church at every corner and in diffusing the 
savor of Christ on every walk of life. 



RULING ELDERS. 305 

Congregationalism has its present substitute for the 
ruling elders' bench in '^ oomniittee-men/' including 
deacons also, a few individuals of superior wisdom and 
experience, and popularity also, being chosen by the 
people from time to time to aid the pastor in his in- 
spection of the flock and to help to maintain fraternity 
with neighboring churches and to execute the discipline 
w^hich the congregation are summoned to consider and 
transact. And yet the substitution is regretted by the 
ablest independent writers, who, from John Owen to 
Professor George T. Ladd, have advocated the restora- 
tion and the continuance of the elder's office in ruling. 
The better days of New England Independency had 
this office. Nearly all the leading churches were pro- 
vided with such representatives, and some of their 
noblest men have sighed for its restoration. " There are 
few discreet pastors," said Cotton Mather, "but what 
make many occasional ruling elders every year." Jon- 
athan Edwards, in a letter to Mr. Erskine of Scotland, 
said, in reference mainly to the utility of this eldership, 
" I have long been out of conceit of our unsettled, inde- 
pendent, confused way of church government, and the 
Presbyterian way has ever appeared to me most agree- 
able to the word of God and the reason and nature of 
things." 

Other systems might be surveyed with similar com- 
parison and like conclusion. Many a function of office 
in well-compacted church politics we may witness under 
another name. But this venerable name of "elder" is 
the best denomination, however civilian it may have 
been during Hebrew theocracy, and however much it 
may seem tangled with the preacher's function when the 
legacy of teaching by Levite, proj^het and apostle vested 

20 



306 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

at last in the presbyter for all remaining time. The 
affinities of teaching and ruling are too close to be 
sundered for edification, and yet not too close to be 
distinguished both in theoretical idea and in practical 
ministration. The expediency, therefore, of holding on 
to the prescriptive right of this designation for all in- 
termediate powers between the bishop and the people 
must be manifest. The name of " lay-elder," against 
which Gillespie and Henderson protested two hundred 
and forty years ago, and Dr. Samuel Miller in a late 
generation, should be discarded entirely, for the interval 
between the teaching and the ruling elder is far less 
than that between the latter and the unofficial members 
among the people. 

Whatever be the diversity of exegesis among Pres- 
byterians about the proof-texts quoted for a scriptural 
warrant, all agree that the office itself is expedient, and 
this argument alone is of great force with even a color 
of divine sanction. Discipline is indispensable to the 
welfare of any church and is fearfully enjoined by 
Revelation, but it cannot be dispensed wisely and well 
or fully and fairly exercised without some consistory of 
a judicial nature between the law and the offender to 
make the right application. Representatives of the 
people must do this for them. Being, therefore, a 
necessary means to a divinely -appointed end, they should 
be considered as of authority from God. Ruling elders 
represent both God and man. 

Historical Authority for the Office. 
Within the first half of this century two distinguished 
Presbyterian divines — Dr. Samuel Miller, professor in 
the Princeton Theological Seminary, and Dr. James P. 



RULING ELDERS. 307 

Wilson, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of 
Philadelphia — opposed each other with equal ability and 
exhaustive research in patristic testimony, including the 
apostolic and all the earlier Fathers, on the office of 
ruling elder. The former prevailed with abiding im- 
pression and active influence over the whole Church — 
not only because of his position as a teacher, of his large 
learning and of his loyal devotion to Westminster doc- 
trine and polity, but also because he was the survivor 
of the two and had the last word in a small volume 
published and distributed widely by the Presbyterian 
Board of Publication. There was no animosity between 
these two eminent fathers, and no inaccuracy on either 
side in citing and translating the facts of history ; but, 
renowned as he was for logical discrimination. Dr. Wil- 
son began with confused premises and too much eager- 
ness for absolute refutation. His imperfect exegesis 
had furnished him with certain postulates which he was 
determined to make the standard of interpretation for 
Church history. One of these was that only two orders 
of office can be found in the New Testament, as in Phil. 
i. 1 ; another was that no generic sense can be given to 
the term " elder " or to the term " bishop " while these 
are used interchangeably and pre(iisely convertible with 
each other. A third postulate was that there is no 
spiritual oversight of the flock in any other than a 
teaching elder. Dr. Miller, on the other hand, recog- 
nized the generic sense of '^ elder" in 1 Tim. v. 17 and 
elsewhere, and was willing to accept three orders in 
office — bishops, elders and deacons in diversified func- 
tions — because he considered three distinct ordinations to 
be proper. But only one preaching order after the time 
of the apostles would he acknowledge, and this called 



308 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

" bishop " in relation to a particular pastorate — an elder 
who became primus inter pares in being deputed by the 
people and associate elders on the bench to guide the 
Church by the ministry of the word. These associate 
elders, continued in their immemorial exercise of ruling 
— which in the Church is, of course, a spiritual over- 
sight — would be as properly included in the name 
" bishop " as in that of '^ elder ;'^ hence the plural, 
"bishops," in Phil. i. 1. And at the first these elders, 
being so little distinguished from one another by their 
attainments, must have seemed one office much more 
than now, when the process of education in preparing 
one specially for his great office makes the distinction 
of eldership so manifest that superficial observation would 
have our elders generically rather than specifically dis- 
tinct in office, and therefore not scriptural. This truer 
outline of interpretation takes Presbytery by the hand 
and leads us through the artless literature of the first 
ages with much more satisfaction as we find organiza- 
tion of the early post-apostolic Church more conformed 
to the model of inspiration and less deflected from the 
original norm than we had cause to fear in the vicissi- 
tude and hardship to w^iich the forming period of the 
visible Church was exposed. The dispute over the 
Fathers — of the first two centuries, at least — is one of 
words only, a logomachy of names, '^ bishop," " elder," 
"deacon," and "deaconess," and the numerals "three," 
"two" and "one," applied to orders. 

The first of the apostolic Fathers, and one who had 
probably worked with the apostle Paul, was Clement of 
Rome, in the first century, w^ho represented the church 
at Rome in a letter to the church at Corinth on the 
subject of disturbances in the latter church. These 



RULING ELDERS. 309 

were occasioned by a revolt of the people against the 
authority of their officers — npea^urepocj ^' elders :'' " Let 
the flock of Christ enjoy peace with its elders appointed 
over it ;" ^' For ye did all things without respect of 
persons, and walked in the commandments of God, 
being obedient to those who had the rule over you, and 
giving all fitting honor to the presbyters among you ;" 
" Ye, therefore, who laid the foundation of this sedition, 
submit yourselves to the presbyters, and receive correc- 
tion so as to repent ;'' " It is disgraceful, beloved, yea 
highly disgraceful, and unworthy of your Christian 
profession, that such a thing should be heard of, as that 
the most steadfast and ancient church of the Corinthians, 
should, on account of one or two persons, engage in sedi- 
tion against its presbyters." Prior to these quotations 
bearing on the subject of polity and discipline he wrote 
thus of the apostles: '^And, preaching through countries 
and cities, they appointed the first-fruits, having first 
proved them by the Spirit, to be bishops and deacons 
of those who should afterward believe. Nor was this 
anything new, since, indeed, many ages before, it was 
written concerning bishops and deacons.''* 

These excerpts are from the purest fragment of pa- 
tristic literature, next to canonical Scripture, in genuine- 
ness and authenticity, and the only uninspired writing 
of the first century which is received without challenge 
or doubt in historical tradition. From these, and others, 
more extended, of the same tenor, we may safely make 
the following inferences : (1) That no diocesan bishop, 
or bishop over bishop, was recognized in the first cen- 
tury after the apostles. As the great reason, according 
to Jerome, for the existence of such a hierarch was to 
* Isa. Ix. 17. 



310 CHURCH aOVERNMENT. 

compose and conserve unity in the Church, and as the 
trouble at Corinth which Clement wrote to remedy was 
the distraction of unity, it is obviously sure that the 
total omission of such a remedy in the epistle of Clem- 
ent is demonstration that no such bishop was known 
in the Christian Church — for the first hundred years, 
at least. (2) The Corinthian church at the date of this 
letter was guided and governed by a plurality of elders 
— "presbyters/' (3) These were probably the consis- 
tory, or " Session,'' of one particular church, and were 
not the Presbytery of a number of churches in the same 
city, for a conspiracy of different and of all the churches 
in one city against all their officers would be almost 
impossible, and would be without a parallel in subse- 
quent history. (4) It is altogether improbable that 
such a sedition at Corinth would be against their teach- 
ing elders alone, in view of the notable attachment of 
that people to their guides in teaching, signified by the 
rebuke of the apostle Paul for partisan and factious 
adherence to such officers. 1 Cor. i. 12. (5) It is fair 
to conclude, therefore, that this plurality of elders 
against which the people of Corinth had rebelled were 
mostly, if not all, ruling elders, according to the well- 
known fact of this office being unpopular, comparatively, 
in every age. In apostolic and reform and revival times 
it may be otherwise, but ordinarily the judicial bench, 
composed of faithful men who watch the people famil- 
iarly and intimately in the aberrations of folly and sin, 
are most obnoxious and disliked by the average pro- 
fessors. And at Corinth especially, where the body of 
the church had been arraigned by the apostle for its 
tolerance of the most flagrant offi^nders, there would 
naturally be an outbreak of opposition to the presbyters, 



RULING ELDERS. 311 

who represented them in discipHne, \\liilc proceeding 
against the incestuous or any other kind of scandalous 
character according to PauFs direction in one particular 
case. 1 Cor. v. 1-6. We may safely insist, upon the 
whole, that the earliest uninspired document of primi- 
tive Christianity suggests on its face and contains in 
logical reason a ruling eldership as distinctly a feature 
of scriptural polity. 

At the beginning of the second century we have the 
next phase of church government, to be noticed in the 
epistles of Ignatius, which plainly hint what we would 
naturally expect in the plurality of elders ordained in 
every church and left by apostles and evangelists to 
furnish preaching as well as ruling in the visible Church. 
These different functions would reasonably appear to be 
a blended commission — for one generation, at least, until 
the special designation of the teaching elder would work 
out the distinction, to be more and more apparent in the 
specific culture and preparation required for the preach- 
ing vocation. And this kind of elder, separated from 
his brethren at the ordinary vocations of life in being 
wholly given to the ministry, would be called the 
" bishop," while they also were bishops in their com- 
mon degree of spiritual oversight, though remaining 
under the denomination of " elders." The bishop now 
would be still an elder, of course, in exercising rule con- 
jointly, and the other elders would be bishops also in 
watchful supervision conjointly. A progressive devel- 
opment of distinction among elders in this way is pre- 
cisely the sketch we find in Ignatius's writings when he 
so often and formally mentions bishop, presbyters and 
deacons in speaking of church-officers. 

Without touching the ^' Ignatian controversy " about 



312 CHURCH COVERNMENT. 

the gonuineness of the text wliich is called his, or at- 
tempting to decide — what, probably, never can be de- 
cided — whether the shorter or the longer Greek recen- 
sion of the seven epistles or the lately discovered vSyriac 
version be the most genuine, we may safely say for our 
purpose here that, without conceding any one of them 
as free from interpolation by succeeding writers, we may 
take the subsequent interpolation as a bigger type of the 
same system which that martyr occasioned by his crude 
and extravagant expressions before he fell into the 
hands of Trajan, only belated and intended for a larger 
scale of ecclesiastical formation. 

That Ignatius meant the organization of one particular 
church in his oft-repeated catalogue of officers — bishop, 
presbyters and deacons — will be sufficiently evident in 
selecting two of his epistles — viz., that to the Mag- 
nesians and that to the Trallians. In neither Magnesia 
nor Tralles can it be admitted there was more than one 
particular church. The former, according to Strabo, and 
to Pliny also, was but fifteen miles distant from Ephesus, 
and the latter, Tralles, was situated a little north of 
Magnesia. The ecclesiastical centre of that region — 
and, indeed, of all Lydia, and even of Asia Minor — 
was Ephesus, where there was a plurality of elders, 
but no superior bishop mentioned in the sacred text. 
There could have been, therefore, only parochial epis- 
copacy in that vicinity and region ; so that the following 
quotations are an exact description of a presbyteriau 
polity : " The Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians," 
chap. iii. : '' Now, it becomes you also not to treat your 
bishop too familiarly on account of his youth, but to 
yield him all reverence, ... as I have known even 
holy presbyters do, not judging rashly from the mani- 



RULING ELDERS, ?A'?> 

fest youthful appearance, but as being tlieniselves prudent 
in God, submitting to him — or, rather, not to him, but to 
the Fatlier of Jesus Christ, the bishop of us all." Again 
(ch. vi.) : " I exhort you to study to do all things with a 
divine harmony while your bishop presides in the place 
of God and your presbytei^s in the place of the assembly 
of the apostles, along with your deacons. . . . Let nothing 
exist among you that may divide you ; but be ye united 
with your bishop, and those that preside over you." 
Ch. xiii. : '' Study, therefore, to be established in the 
doctrines of the Lord and the apostles, that so all things 
whatsoever ye do may prosper both in the flesh and 
spirit . . . with your most admirable bishop, and the 
well-compacted spiritual crown of your Presbytery, and 
the deacons who are according to God." Thus we see 
the primitive eldership distributed in every paragraph 
just as we may now distribute them according to the 
Presbyterian " Form " of Church government. A 
bishop, a bench, a plurality — a generic name for all 
is "Presbytery," whether in one parish singly or in 
several parishes collectively. And this name is a special 
designation wherever allusion is made to ruling. When 
"holy presbyters" would cherish and sustain a youthful 
pastor (bishop), it was to be in the way of " not judging 
rashly," but being prudent, submitting to him, etc. 
Every mention of the eldership has a tincture of judg- 
ment and ruling in the color of expression — three kinds 
of office, and not three orders in the same office, of preach- 
ing; three functions in the harmony of government and 
direction, all distinct from one another, without preclud- 
ing at all the union of two in one or more of the official 
persons so expressly distinguished. "That so there may 
be a union both fleshly and spiritual," he subjoins to his 



314 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

delineation of polity. Neither Ignatius nor any other 
apostolic Father imagined that the ultimate idea of the 
Church would ever be simplified to spirit alone, dispens- 
ing with organization when united to one another in 
union to a common Head, and sublimating the aggre- 
gate of redeemed souls to that of angels, although with- 
out some organization even angels cannot serve and help 
and rejoice. 

Ignatius "to the holy church which is at Tralles, 
Asia ^' (ch. ii.) : " It is therefore necessary, whatsoever 
things ye do, to do nothing without the bishop. And 
be ye subject also to the Presbytery, as to the apostles 
of Jesus Christ. ... It is fitting, also, that the deacons, 
as being of the mysteries of Jesus Christ, should in every 
respect be pleasing to all. For they are not ministers of 
meat and drink, but servants of the Church of God. 
They are bound therefore to avoid all grounds of 
accusation, as they Avould do fire." Ch. iii. : "Let 
all reverence the deacons as an appointment of Jesus 
Christ, and the bishop as Jesus Christ, who is the Son 
of the Father, and the presbyters as the Sanhedrim of 
God and assembly of the apostles. Apart from these 
there is no Church." Ch. xiii. : " Fare ye well in Jesus 
Christ while ye continue subject to the bishop as to the 
command, and in like manner to the Presbytery. And 
do ye every man love one another with an undivided 
heart." These quotations from the epistle to the Tral- 
lians might be multiplied to the same effect from the 
same and other epistles of Ignatius which are accepted 
by the learned generally as most worthy of credit. 

A fair analysis of these last will indicate, at the be- 
ginning of the second century : 1. That without organ- 
ization there was no Church recognized as called to be 



RULING ELDERS. 315 

visibly or invisibly such ; 2. Tluit tliis organization on 
earth consisted of bishop, elders and deacons, with 
whom the people were to be officered; 3. That the 
faitiiful were to be subject in like mariner to bishops and 
elders, whilst deacons also were to be reverenced as an 
appointment of Christ; 4. This plurality of elders in 
one church is likened to a plurality of apostles in 
council — of course, in the exercise of judicial authority 
— and again likened to "the Sanhedrim of God,'' the 
highest judicial authority of the Jewish Church ; 5. Dea- 
cons were not considered ministers of the word, nor yet 
rulei-s like the elders, nor " ministers of meat and drink" 
only in the service of tables, but of spiritual charities 
also, and general benevolence — "servants of the Church 
of God." Thus we see how the famed " Theophorus," 
scarcely a century later than the incarnation of Jesus, 
precisely and repeatedly described the Presbyterian 
system of church government, fairly developed in 
the structure of a particular church. And there is 
not a line of all the writings properly ascribed to Igna- 
tius which enlarges the scale of his meaning to the pro- 
portions of a diocesan episcopacy. If it be objected that 
even the shorter Greek recension of his letters may be 
questioned and has been denied by some scholars to be 
genuine, we have Archbishop Ussher, Archbishop Wake 
and Bishop Pearson to the contrary, and a great multi- 
tude of Anglican authorities besides, in maintaining at 
least the two epistles from which we have quoted to be 
genuine — so much, indeed, of concession that we have a 
good ad-hominem argument against prelacy in particular, 
and decided evidence that ruling elders did not all preach 
and that deacons did not preach at all. Presbytery in 
each organization, however, had begun to allow the 



316 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

public teacher, becoming primus inter pares, a special 
episcopate in the parish, and so to become the bishop, 
whilst the oversight of elders engrossed in ruling only 
would retain the exercise of discipline and only that 
much of oversight which is necessarily implied in this 
ordinance. 

Later than the martyrdom of Ignatius was that 
of Poly carp, who suffered about the middle of the 
second century. Though he himself is called by early 
writers bishop of Smyrna, and doubtless was so in the 
parochial sense, being pastor of that particular flock, 
and by his contemporaries in the ministry of that age 
exhorted to be " personally acquainted with every mem- 
ber, to seek out all by name and not overlook even the 
servantmen and maids of his charge,^' yet, in writing 
to the Philippians, whom the apostle Paul greeted 
" with the bishops and deacons," he also mentioned but 
two orders of office, which he denominated "elders 
[presbyters] and deacons," without mentioning " bishop" 
at all, showing the scriptural identity of presbyter and 
bishop. Iq chap. vi. he gives the duties required of 
presbyters, evidently in the generic sense of the word — 
teachers and rulers both, the prevailing import being 
characteristic of the elders in their ancient and original 
duties and qualifications of inspection and rule : " And 
let the presbyters be compassionate and merciful to all, 
bringing back those that wander, visiting all the sick, 
and not neglecting the widow, the orphan or the poor, 
but always providing for that which is becoming in the 
sight of God and men, abstaining from all wrath, re- 
spect of persons and unjust judgment, keeping far off' 
from all coveteousness, not quickly crediting [reports] 
against any one, not severe in judgment, as knowing 



RULING ELDERS. 



317 



that we are all under a debt of siu. If, then, we entreat 
the Lord to forgive us, we ought also ourselves to for- 
give ; for we are before the eyes of our Lord and God, 
and we must all appear at the judgment-seat^of Christ, 
and must every one give an account of himself." Plainly, 
this charge suits a body of presbyters who are— in the ma- 
joritv, at least— ruling elders, and must appear amazingly 
defective on the hypothesis that all the presbyters were 
preachers. Not a word is here about the gospel to be 
preached in season and out of season, rightly dividing 
the word of truth and giving to every one his portion. 
This fragment of antiquity, which no critic has chal- 
lenged for its genuineness, must reveal to us a ruling 
eldership distinctly continued in the second century. 
For, surely, this -^apostolical presbyter," as he was called 
by his pupil Irenseus, having been conversant, as Clem- 
ent had been, with the apostles of our Lord, would not 
have headed the address of his letter " Polycarp and the 
presbyters with him " if these had all been preaching 
elders, and say not a word about preaching itself in the 
body of his epistle, which is one of extended and minute 
injunction of duty and behavior, distinctly characteris- 
tic of "ruling well" in each particular church. 

Belonging to the first half of the second century, we 
may notice, without ascertaining dates precisely, frag- 
ments which Irenseus and Eusebius have partially pre- 
served, first gleaning a passage or two from Hermas of 
Rome, who was contemporary with Clement, and like 
him, most probably, meant by the name in Scripture. 
He speaks of eldei-s always in the plural number as 
exercising authority in the church. The Pastor of Her- 
mas had a popularity for two or three centuries in the 
early Church analogous, it has been said, to that of 



318 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

the Pllgrim^s Progress^ by John Bunyan, through these 
last generations. Though extremely fanciful, and even 
frivolous at times, it must have had substantial mean- 
ing to the mind of that heroic age, in which it had a 
currency next to that of canonical history and epistle, 
and even read in some churches, according to tradition, 
as if given by inspiration for that purpose. In ^'Vision'' 
2 and chap. iv. we read thus : '' But you will read the 
words in this city along with the presbytere who preside 
over the church.'' In " Vision " 3 and chap. v. we 
read : " Hear now with regard to the stones which are 
in the building. Those square white stones which fitted 
exactly into each other are apostles, bisho})s, teachers 
and deacons who have lived in godly purity, and have 
acted as bishops and teachers and deacons chastely and 
reverently to the elect of God.'' Manifestly, the bishops 
here mentioned, coming after the apostles and plural in 
number, must be presbyters identically as the two names 
are used in the New Testament, and these are expressly 
made distinct from '^ teachers," who come after them in 
this enumeration. And these varieties of office are 
" fitted exactly to each other " in observing the sequence 
of history as to their appointment : first, apostles ; next, 
elders, " ordained in every church ;" next, teachers, 
when the apostles had finished their testimony and de- 
volved upon the elders' bench the province of teaching 
for all time, and therefore gradually distinguished from 
the body of elders by the development of fitness in 
some — not all — for ministry of the word, and hence 
called "teachers," though remaining bishops to preside 
over the Church in common with other elders, who 
remained on the judicial bench to rule. Thus we have, 
on the whole breadth of gospel teaching, in Hermas, a 



RULING ELDERS. 319 

significant distinction made, corresponding to what Paul 
made in 1 Tim. v. 17. 

The fragment of Papias, called " bishop of Hier- 
apolis," by subsequent historians a martyr, who was 
said to have been a hearer of tlie apostle John, and by 
Eusebius to have been a learned man well acquainted 
with the Scriptures and the resources of history, must 
be dated in the first half of the second century. It is 
remarkable for the total omission of the word " bishop," 
giving even to the apostles the name " elders," indicat- 
ing that the very highest office in the Church of the 
New Testament is that of presbyter : " If, then, any 
one who had attended on the elders came, I asked 
minutely after their sayings what Andrew or Peter said, 
or what was said by Philip, or by Thomas or by James, 
or by John or by Matthew, or by any other of the 
Lord^s disciples; which things Aristion and the pres- 
byter John, the disciples of the Lord, say. For I 
imagined that what was to be got from books was not 
so profitable to me as what came from the living and 
abiding voice." The parlance of the apostolic age — in 
which both Peter and John, we know, called themselves 
elders — reproduced in this way three generations later, 
makes, we see, the highest dignity in the Church to be 
the eldership, and a plurality of elders to be the normal 
organization of every church, and the certainty that 
these could not all have been preachers without a failure 
of the Church upon her mission, when the harvest was 
so great and the laborers were so few, in having a sur- 
plusage like this in crowded occupation at home. Only 
a plurality of ruling — not teaching — elders in each or- 
ganization can solve the enigma. 

About the middle of the second century Justin Martyr 



320 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

is to be noticed. He was the first Christian philosopher, 
and seems to have been successively Stoic, Pythagorean 
and Platonic before his conversion to Christianity. It 
is uncertain whether he was ever an ecclesiastic himself, 
though pre-eminently a teacher and an apologist for 
Christianity. In his apologies to the Antonines he de- 
scribes minutely the ministrations of word and ordi- 
nances by the pastor of a Christian congregation, whom 
he calls president of the Church in using the Greek 
term npoeazco^ — the same that in its plural form is used 
in 1 Tim. v. 17 to express '' elders that rule.'' Here it 
has been alleged that both the ruler and the preacher 
must be included in the notion of presiding, and, no 
other kind of officers than deacons being mentioned by 
Justin, it has been concluded that no ruling elders dis- 
tinctly existed between president and deacon under his 
observation. But we cannot believe that because one 
presiding elder was both ruler and teacher, tlierefore no 
other elders could be associated with him in the over- 
sight of a church as ruling elders only, yet virtually 
presiding also. The Ephori of ancient Sparta — a magis- 
tracy of five coequal censors elected by the people — had 
a common supervision of public affairs competent to 
regulate kings as well as people with supreme arbitra- 
tion ; yet one of these, with the consent of the others, pre- 
sided at their council, and was called by this very name 
TtpoeffTO)^, without any one supposing that he was alone 
in such supremacy or that the chosen associates were 
inferior in rank to their president. The force of this 
objection is but nominal. Ecclesiastics who reject our 
system of ruling elders are in the habit of dubbing these 
officers with disparaging names prefixed, such as lay 
elders, who are subordinate officials, etc., all of which 



RULING ELDERS. 321 

we consider gratuitous. The ruling elder and the teach- 
ing are co-ordinately presbyters iu representing alike 
the people whom they guide and by whom they are 
chosen. 

When we proceed to the third century, the first Father 
to be noticed is Irenseus, who suifered death at its thresh- 
old, A. D. 202, probably at Lyons. The phraseology of 
his ecclesiasticism is decidedly Presbyterian. He writes 
of presbyters and bishops being the same officers with 
such designations interchangeably used, urging against 
the heretics a derivation of truth from the apostles 
through the channel of succeeding "presbyters" care- 
fully transmitted, making the office of presbyter the 
highest in the Christian Church and the chain of con- 
nection and identity with her founders. Apostolical 
succession is presbyter ial succession, and of course to be 
traced through the representative presidents of presby- 
terian organizations. In all the ages corporations act 
and speak through their presiding officers, but this 
never means the president is the only corporator who 
has authority, or that his oversight is unaided by his 
peel's, or that he acts without their counsel in the course 
of direction. On the contrary, in the light of all ob- 
servation and common sense, the use of this appellative 
in connection with " presbyter," such as Irenseus intro- 
duced in the phrase 7:pe(TfiijTEf)0i npoazdre^, " presiding 
elders," must indicate other elders coexisting who had 
authority without formally presiding over those they 
ruled or those with whom they ruled. Such elders would 
naturally be passed over in silence by the writer simply 
because of their equality in rank and identity in work 
with the president. It is true beyond a doubt that if 
*' kiy " presbyters, or elders of '^ subprdinate " and " in- 

21 



322 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

ferior '^ class, had existed then, they would have been 
mentioned by Justin and Irenseus, just as they would l)e 
now in the standard of Presbyterian polity if they existed. 
But we know of no such elders in the reformation and 
reconstruction. It may be convenient for some opponents 
now to invent the adjectives, but they do not hold : words 
may be things, but they do not make things. 

There is one passage in Ireuseus, however, that is 
more than silence in regard to some classification of 
elders. In Book 3, ch. xiv., referring to the memorable 
interview of the apostle Paul with the elders of Ephesus 
meeting him at Miletus, Irenseus thus writes : " The 
bishops and presbyters who were from Ephesus and 
other neighboring cities, being convened at Miletus, 
because he (Paul) was hastening to spend Pentecost at 
Jerusalem,'^ etc. This passage — which mentions bishops 
and presbyters distinctively, as if they were not the same, 
though every other page of Irengeus used them promis- 
cuously — would indeed be contrary and inconsistent with 
himself and aifbrd a handle to diocesan episcopacy, bating 
the wonder that nothing is said of '^ bishops'^ in the New- 
Testament account of the case. But suppose we make 
the bishops teaching elders and the presbyters along with 
them ruling elders ; then everything is clear and con- 
sistent according to Scripture, and confirmatory of every 
position we take in this analysis of the Fathers. We 
have no need of detecting interpolation or bad transla- 
tion here. It indicates the gradual process of distinc- 
tion for the presiding presbyter among his brethren after 
they had chosen him to be their preacher and pastor of 
the people, and that Irenseus preferred the designation 
of '' bishop '^ to that of " president,^' which Justin 
Martyr had introduced, and through whom, as repre- 



RULING ELDERS. 323 

seating the bench of rulers in each particular church, 
the apostolical tradition had come down to his time. 

The same construction must be made of the little we 
find in the literature of Clemens Alexandrinus, which 
belongs to the last thirty years of the second century, 
on the church polity of his age. He also speaks of 
bishops and elders interchangeably as the same official 
rank and one only in the ministry of the word. And 
yet, when he comes to speak of the heavenly state and 
the degrees of perfect felicity there, he affirms that these 
will correspond to the visible dignities attained in the 
militant Church on earth, which he makes threefold — 
bishops, elders and deacons. In this particular, then, 
we must charge on that accomplished scholar inconsist- 
ency or tautology of speech if he does not intend elders 
that ruled only and well in the distinction made on high. 
If it be said that such a distinction among elders on 
earth would have been expressed by Clement in describ- 
ing the correspondence, we may answer that it is def- 
initely enough expressed Avhen he makes distinction 
between bishops and elders, maintaining, at the same 
time, that these were identical in the ministerial office. 
The first term, " bishop," is the elder that both rules 
and teaches, the latter capacity awarded him by his col- 
leagues on the bench ; the second term, " presbyter," must, 
therefore, import that j)lurality on the bench which 
abides in the capacity of ruling only. We agree with 
objectors to this interpretation that because " lay " pres- 
byters — an " intermediate " and ^^ inferior " class of pres- 
byters — were not mentioned at all by Clement they could 
have had no existence in his day, and say, moreover, that 
they can have no existence in this day. For neither 
laical rank nor inferior grade of elders can be found in 



324 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

our constitution, and we must consider it extremely 
illogical to beg the question by arbitrary misnomer 
fixed upon an order which existed in the Church be- 
fore Christ was born, and which he deigned to honor 
by his personal attention and that of his apostles. 

Cyprian was bishop of Carthage at the middle of the 
third century, and has been considered the churchman of 
his age. Having been a teacher of rhetoric before his 
conversion, and therefore competent in the use of lan- 
guage to distinguish with propriety things which differ, 
he used the significant phrase " teaching elders " to 
denote as a class presbyters admitted to preach.* A 
definite correlation to this must be, of course, our 
phrase of " ruling elders.'^ Anglican expositors frankly 
admit it. His translator and scholiast, Marshall, says, 
*' It is hence, T think, apparent that all presbyters were 
not teachers, but assisted the bishop in other parts of his 
office." And Bishop Fell to the same purport quotes 
our text, 1 Tim. v. 17, saying, "St. Paul appears to 
have made a distinction in ancient times between teach- 
ing and ruling elders.'^ Dodwell, of the seventeenth 
century— another learned and strenuous advocate of 
prelacy — concedes explicitly that Cyprian distinguished 
teaching from ruling elders, making the same distinction 
which Paul made in 1 Tim. v. IT.f It is worthy of re- 
mark that Cyprian did not make the ruling class inferior 
to the teaching in rank, but only said the teaching elders' 
place was more '^ distinguished." 

Origen, of the same century, despite his dreamy specu- 
lations in doctrine, and exegesis also, could observe prac- 
tical usages with all the simplicity and candor of a child, 
and one might imagine a Presbyterian church of the 

* Ep. to Phil., sec. 6. f Cyprianic Dissertations, sec. 6. 



RULING ELDERS. 325 

nineteenth century before his eyes when he wrote in 
his third book against Celsus, (chap, li.) the following 
description : " There are some rulers appointed whose 
duty it is to inquire concerning the manners and con- 
versation of those who are admitted, that they may 
debar from the congregation such as commit filthiness." 
This is the Cambridge translation, by Spencer, in the 
seventeenth century. The Edinburgh translation, re- 
cently published in the Ante-Nicene Library, though 
less pointed for use in this connection, " persons '^ being 
the word instead of '^ rulers," is made substantially the 
same in meaning — that is, the discipline of the Church 
was exercised, not by her teachers only, nor yet by her 
assembled members at large, but by persons chosen for 
this ministration especially, to inspect the character 
and the conduct of such as are to be admitted to the 
communion of believers or to be excluded as unworthy 
of such privilege. The accuracy of this and other 
gleaning from the third century is vouched for by the 
Madgeburg Centuriators — a great Lutheran treasury of 
Church history — in one sentence : " The right of decid- 
ing respecting such as were to be excommunicated, or of 
receiving such as had fallen, was vested in the elders of 
the church." * 

Here our induction and our detail of history may 
well desist when we approach the last shades of this 
vital office in our system as its origin and its outline 
were given at the beginning. And the most compendi- 
ous way of closing the line of historical testimony be- 
fore the great Reformation is to group in half a dozen 
particulars the facts which ante-Nicene and Nicene de- 
velopments afford. 

* Cent. 3, cap. 7. 



326 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

(1) The enhancement of episcopacy in every parish. 
Organization of a particular church necessarily departed 
from that of the synagogue in having a fixed ministry 
at length, easily arranged in consistency with all other 
features of the old ecclesia and required by the '' ever- 
lasting gospel/' Beginning with a plurality of co-equal 
elders in every church and a consignment of the great 
commission to these representatives of the people, whom 
the people chose by their own suffrage, the mission of 
God's word, when apostles departed and supernatural 
gifts were withdrawn, exacted of this venerable bench 
more than the direction of preaching, as the elders had 
hitherto discerned and selected it, among the many who 
went to and fro with the gifts which laid the founda- 
tions of the Church. Within each established parish 
provision must now be made for a permanent service 
of acceptable preaching. Doubtless every eldership re- 
tained much of the elevation if not the endowment, 
much of the zeal and consecration if not the miracle, of 
that initial period, and piety itself is a gi-eat talent ; yet, 
comparatively, even on that high level, there must have 
remained a great diversity of gifts. All were presumed 
to have capacity for ruling well, or they would not at 
such a time have been chosen to the place of judges and 
directors. All were " apt to teach " also, or they would 
not answer for judges and rulers. No man, either in 
Church or in State, is fit to rule who cannot explain to 
the people ruled the nature of and the reason for all his 
decisions. As already observed, the great questions to 
be answered by the elders now are, " Who will specially 
go in and out among us to break the bread of life?" 
" Who will go for us far hence, even to the ends of the 
earth, with the glad tidings of salvation through Jesus 



RULING LLDERS, 327 

Cliri;?!?" Coinmou sense among the elders must have 
been competent to solve their problem : " That man 
among ourselves or among our people who is best quali- 
fied — who, like Aaron of old, is one of whom God 
would say, ' I know that he can speak welP — must be 
our choice. '^ And the preacher at home, having the 
elder's ordination and the people's vote for this public 
function, would, of course, unite ruling and teaching 
together in the oversight to which he is chosen with 
such a specialty, and would soon be called the " bishop " 
with distinction of emphasis. The other elders, retain- 
ing still a concurrent oversight and not being called to 
give themselves wholly to it, would unite with a spir- 
itual oversight the ordinary industries of life to provide 
things honest in the sight of all men, and would thus 
adorn the doctrine they held by consistent walk and 
conversation as ensamples to the flock. But, obviously, 
the guidance and the government would be conspicu- 
ously trusted more and more to the teaching elder, whose 
privilege, and whose duty also, were to live at the altar 
with exclusive occupation, to study the people as well as 
the books, and to suggest to the Session or the consistory 
of elders the measures proper to be taken in the man- 
agement of their charge. Being but an " earthen ves- 
sel " in possessing such a treasure, and only too willing 
by nature to covet more in proportion as responsibilities 
were multiplied, the bishop would gradually engross all 
authority of both word and rule, exemplifying sadly 
the baleful effects of ambition in the Church as well 
as in the world. The chief obstacle in this way of ag- 
grandizement and monopoly was the faithfulness of 
ruling elders in his council, whose independence could 
not easily forget its own memorial and could hardly be 



328 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

compromised when the usurper was one of themselves. 
Struggles ensued. 

(2) And the next step of the bishop was to humble 
this order of his fellows and to promote the deacons — 
servants of the church — to a position of higher dignity 
than that of the rulers. They had always been more 
subservient to his purpose, and they were now promoted 
to the rank of teachers — without, indeed, power to rule 
in the parish, which, however, was effectually neutral- 
ized in making the original rulers a third and subor- 
dinate rank, whose authority, therefore, could no longer 
be more than a name. This altered gradation is fully 
manifested in the Gesta Purgationis, etc., which appeared 
about the end of the third century, where the orders of 
church-office are catalogued thus : Presbyteri, diaconi et 
seniores. The bishop (parochial yet) now took to him- 
self the name of " presbyter ^' as it had been used at 
first — convertibly with " bishop ^^ — and had the deacons 
put next and the ruling elders put last, under a name 
which was appellative, and not official, signifying merely 
old men who were supposed to have attained wisdom by 
experience. 

(3) This degradation could not be endured by ruling 
elders, and the next conflict was either to have their 
authority restored or to have the now nominal office 
discontinued. And, seeing the teacher was honored 
more than the ruler who had been disparaged and be- 
come a blank under episcopal usurpation, those that 
loved the Church more than the world, the so-called 
seniors, now aspired to become ministers of the woixi 
and the sacraments. The bishop complied as far as 
possible with such application, because it would oblit- 
erate an office which had been an obstacle and an offence 



RULING ELDERS. :i29 

to him so loDs;. But iu conseiitiii": to tliis he reduced 
the elders, from whose hands originally his own office 
came, to the condition of laymen, favoring the laical 
and official alike as candidates for the ministry, and of 
course exalting his own authority as the sole ordainer to 
any gradation of office. This deplorable inversion was 
at the ragged edge of consummation when the Council 
of Nice was called by Constantine. 

(4) At this memorable epoch Church and State were 
united in a theocracy which compounded the Jewish 
hierarchy of three orders in the ministry with a recon- 
structed expanse of secular gradation that enlarged the 
sphere of clerical ambition, confederating spiritual and 
imperial authority from the base to the summit of car- 
nal promotion. Of course the robust manliness of rul- 
ing elders had no place in that colossal system, and yet 
the creeping ambition of parish bishop lost its final 
attainment of ruling power in the submergence of elders 
when itself had to be yielded to another above him 
whom the empire denominated " diocesan," and the old 
Dame of " presbyter '' was restored to its precedence iu 
regard to deacon, and yet divested wholly of its primi- 
tive significance in ruling; and ever since it has de- 
scended in papal and prelatic organizations as presbytery 
without power even to ordain except as equipage in the 
company of a bishop, when he does it with exclusive 
authority assumed, and they merely concur in a formal 
way. 

Now, on this fourfold induction from authentic his- 
tory we may well submit a challenge to those who reject 
the ruling eldership as no feature of the Church in its 
original constitution, with these interrogatories : How 
could it be that all the Christian elders in Scripture 



330 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

mention were preachers of the word, and a plurality 
of these in every church, however small, and living 
alike at the altar, to which they were to be given 
" wholly,'' and yet surrender to one of themselves the 
whole business of teaching and ruling together, elimi- 
nating the essence of the old ecclesia, which our Lord 
and his apostles honored and approved, just as soon as 
Paul died and while the last of the twelve, John, was 
yet living ? How could it be that deacons — the servants 
of the church — were advanced to the ministry of the 
word, and therefore put above and before eldei-s, at the 
end of the second century, if the elders had been all and 
always ministers of the word before? How could it 
be that presbyters in the third century who desired to 
become preachers, if they had been such already and 
from the beginning, had to stand on common ground 
with the laity in making application for license and 
passing trials of fitness under the authority of a bishop? 
And if all the elders with whom the New-Testament 
Church began were alike teaching and ruling presbyters, 
why is it that such inseparable union of the two capaci- 
ties has been disrupted by popery and by prelacy? 
Presbyters with them may preach, but may not rule , 
elders with Presbyterians may rule, and may not preach. 
The converse is just as good on one side as on the other 
in formula, yet " and '' is better than " but '' in this com- 
parison, for it makes room for two classes of presbyters 
— those who rule only, and those who both rule and 
teach. To deny ruling to the presbyter is against the 
meaning of this word, and against the Bible also. 

We find another proof historically of the existence of 
ruling elders from the beginning as a distinct office in 
retrospective expressions of regret for the discontinuance, 



RULING ELDERS. 331 

and also traces of its lingering in corners of Christendom 
before these were quite swept over by a swollen Catholi- 
cism wedded now to secular imperialism. For example, 
we recall the testimony of Ambrose in the fourth cen- 
tury : " For indeed among all nations old age is honor- 
able. Hence it is that the synagogue, and afterward the 
church, had elders, without whose counsel nothing was 
done in the church ; which by what negligence it grew 
into disuse I know not, unless, perhaps, by the sloth — 
or, rather, pride — of the teachers, while they alone wish 
to be accounted something." The only evasion of this re- 
markable passage ever attempted comes from the first 
sentence by turning "elders" into adjectives, and falling 
back to the appellative origin of a proper name or a 
technical term. Obviously, the antithesis in this pas- 
sage requires the word "elders" to be taken in the 
official sense as much as the word "teachers." If in 
the one term it has only an adjective sense, so it must 
be in the other ; and " teachers " cannot mean official 
ministei's of the word any more distinctly than parents 
and schoolmasters as well as preachers. Besides, " among 
all nations old age is honorable " still, whatever be the 
changes of significance in language and in derivation of 
names. 

We may return to North Africa, where conservative 
Christianity lingered so long, and see in the letters 
of Augustine the significant address "To the beloved 
brethren, the clergy, the elders, and all the people at 
Hippo." This enumeration resembles the style of 
Cyprian, more than a century before, in distinguishing 
elders as teaching and ruling, the teaching being the 
"more distinguished" class. We may pass over to 
Spain a century later, and find in the directions of 



332 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

Isidore these words : " The elders of the people are 
first to be taught, that by them such as are placed under 
them may be more easily instructed.'^ This exhortation 
of the fifth century ought to be translated for every par- 
ticular church in this generation, as it implies a capital 
qualification of ruling elders in being made ''apt to 
teach," privately and socially, as they themselves are 
publicly instructed by "teaching elders." Coming back 
to Rome, also, another century later, we hear Gregory 
the Great, in one of his epistles (19th, 2 Lib.) caution- 
ing the faithful against being too ready to believe a bad 
report about a clergyman, add this direction : " Let the 
truth be diligently investigated by the elders of the 
church who may be at hand, and then, if the character 
of the act demand it, let the proper punishment fall on 
the offender." Dr. Samuel Miller of Princeton, in his 
admirable Essay on ruling elders, which has done so 
much to conserve, establish and advance this noble 
office in the Presbyterian system, has pursued more 
exhaustively the gleanings of history on the subject 
than is possible within our limits. Let it be read and 
pondered still. A long list of names illustrious for 
learning and candor, making an ecclesiastic catholicity 
on the subject of representative eldership, might be 
added in advance of Dr. Miller, whose tribute he has 
gathered with so much balance of critical judgment and 
faithful citation, such as Bullinger, Beza, Turretine, 
Van Msestricht, Tremellius, Piscator, Grotius, Mus- 
covius and Neander. And prior to these were the 
witnesses — Waldenses and Bohemian brethren — who 
testified at the Reformation that long before the days 
of Calvin they had ruling elders distinct from teach- 
ing to represent the people in the care and government 



RULING ELDERS. 333 

of their churches, and that they copied the Genevan 
model at last only for a more .perfect restoration of 
what the fury of persecution had marred in the original 
platforms. Catholicism had wandered from them in 
governing the people without representation, and with- 
out even a plurality of counsellors on the bench of any 
tribunal. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE QUALIFICATIONS OF RULING ELDERS. 

THE following are full and apparently exhaustive 
lists in which it is conceded on all sides among 
biblical and fair interpreters that bishops and elders 
are names for the same office : 1 Tim. iii. 2-7 : " A 
bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one 
wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hos- 
pitality, apt to teach ; not given to wine, no striker, not 
greedy of filthy lucre ; but patient, not a brawler, not 
covetous ; one that ruleth well his own house, having 
his children in subjection with all gravity ; (for if a man 
know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take 
care of the church of God?) not a novice, lest being 
lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of 
the devil. Moreover he must have a good report of 
them which are without ; lest he fall into reproach and 
the snare of the devil." Tit. i. 5-9 : " For this cause 
left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the 
things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, 
as I had appointed thee ; if any be blameless, the hus- 
band of one wife, having faithful children not accused 
of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless, as 
the steward of God ; not self-willed, not soon angry, not 
given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre ; but 
a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, 
holy, temperate; holding fast the faithful word as he 

334 



QUALIFICATIONS OF RULING ELDERS. 335 

hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doc- 
trine both to exhort and to convince the gaiusayers/' 

If all the elders to be so qualified were preachers from 
the date of these directions, why is it not so said on the 
face of this inspired charter? Not one word contains a 
hint of this except dcdaxnxou, '^ apt to teach/' 1 Tim. iii. 
2. But this one word is susceptible of generalization 
large enough to embrace teaching and ruling elders 
both, and all parents, teachers in schools, and, indeed, 
the whole adult membership of the visible Church, who 
are as far as possible to be instructors of one another. 
The only clause in the second passage (Tit. i. 9 : " Hold- 
ing fast the faithful word, as he hath been taught, that 
he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to 
convince the gainsayers '') would apply to the minister 
of gifts without ordination, like Stephen, and also every 
believer of enlightened and strong convictions, in defend- 
ing the faith. Doubtless the ministry of the word 
officially is included in such a formula, and perhajis 
mainly ; but certainly it is not exclusively the function 
of preachers to hold fast the faithful word as they have 
been taught for such a purpose at any time or in any 
generation. 

Among these qualifications we may generalize the 
significance more largely still, and give a passive as well 
as an active sense to nearly all the particulars enumer- 
ated — especially so with that precise and specific word 
which is regarded as peculiarly distinctive, "apt to 
teach '^ — dcoaxTixou. In its active sense, fitness for teach- 
ing, as we iiave seen, it is broader than any generaliza- 
tion we can give to "presbyter;" but, according to some 
of the best lexicographers, Schleusner and others, it may 
be taken as passive in the sense of docile or teachable, 



336 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

like didaxToi in John vi. 45 and elsewhere. The only- 
other instance of its use in Scripture is 2 Tim. ii. 24 : 
"And the servant of the Lord must not strive ; but be 
gentle to all men, apt to teach, patient/' etc. The word 
in the Vulgate translating this term is docibilem — that 
is, teachable himself, that he may " in meekness instruct 
those that oppose themselves," etc. Thus it accords 
with the whole context that the servant of the Lord, 
without wrangling on "foolish and unlearned questions," 
should be candid, open to conviction, truth-loving, in- 
stead of being dogmatically positive and prejudiced and 
proof against reason. 

Here, then, is the marvellous reduction to which we 
come in testing the confident claim that all New-Testa- 
ment elders must be the public and official teachers of 
the Church — a solitary word used but twice in the Bible, 
in both instances meaning " qualified " and " willing to 
teach," either publicly or privately, if it be taken in an 
active sense ; and in both it may make just as good sense, 
in its connection, to be taken passively and rendered 
" docility." The fact is when the New Testament men- 
tions ministers of the word distinctly they are called 
" ambassador," " evangelist," " steward," " teacher," 
" angel," " builder," " workman " — any analogous or 
adjective name but "elder," which is always generic 
after the apostles left the stage, if not sooner when any 
one during their time passed over from the transient 
ministry of gifts to that of permanent orders. This 
generic sense of ruling merely and ruling combined 
with public representative teaching, the former inher- 
ited from the synagogue, and the latter, with the same 
inheritance, being a supervenient function, coming on 
the bench as preternatural gifts and inspired witnesses 



QUALIFICATIONS OF RULING ELDERS. 337 

passed away, must be the complex import of "elder." 
If not, why does the sentiment of ruling pervade the 
whole catalogue of qualifications, and not one distinct 
averment of oratorical fitness and ability is to be dis- 
cerned ? Moses and the prophets choose the man who 
can " speak well " and tell us of " the eloquent orator," 
and will the glorious ministration of the Spirit dispense 
with such fitness for the New-Testament ministry? 
When Moses declined the call to be " spokesman unto 
the people " because he was not " eloquent," the Lord 
was angry with such a diffidence as would not even try 
to be speaker, though it was urged with the promise, 
" I will be with thy mouth ;" he was not, therefore, 
excluded from the embassy, but continued in the chief 
direction, and one of the same family — his brother — was 
chosen to be the speaker, while Moses remained as coun- 
sellor and guide: "He shall be to thee instead of a 
mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God." 
Was this grand old precedent to be lost on the Chris- 
tian Church when the crisis came upon her elders to 
conduct preaching at home and send ambassadors to the 
ends of the earth with a gospel to be spoken to all 
nations? Must the venerable men who had been ap- 
pointed in the ministry of apostles and evangelists to 
serve in pluralities on the bench of ruling in our syna- 
gogue be compelled to preach or be su})erseded in their 
places by those who would and could preach well? If 
so, the departure of apostles must have been the occasion 
of a revolution instead of establishment in the old 
ecclesia, and the two Testaments fail to be in unison 
or identity in building a visible Church on the Rock 
of ages. 

The lists of qualification for elders which are given 

22 



338 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

by inspiration will be understood, therefore, to belong 
to the root or trunk of this one great office, considered 
as a genus. In this light only can we see that every 
phrase or word is applicable to both the branches we 
adopt in our system ; and if we say the lists belong only 
to one branch, the teaching eldership, we may well be 
astonished that aptitudes for the distinctive work of 
preaching which have been so important in every age 
and are more and more important as the culture of the 
world goes on, and which are at this hour a chief concern 
of the Church in her Assemblies, pertaining to theologi- 
cal seminaries, colleges, education, missions, etc., should 
be touched in Holy Scripture with but one ambiguous 
w^ord that means private and social as much or more 
than public teaching. We cannot understand it with- 
out making elders generic in the purport of their name 
and giving to him who rules only and to him who both 
rules and teaches, identified as they are in jurisdiction, 
these lists of qualification which belong to the elders or 
bishops of the Bible. 

Teaching and preaching are not precisely the same in 
revelation or in our comments thereon, else the sacred 
writers are chargeable with tautology in such passages as 
these : Matt. iv. 23 ; Acts v. 42 ; xv. 35. There must 
be, therefore, a generic sense in which we distribute 
these functions among the elders we generalize, making 
the specification for each class according to the position 
or the calling. The main distinction is in the propor- 
tion rather than in the kind, and so we may say the 
elder who lives at the altar preaches, and the elder who 
earns his bread, like private and unofficial membei's, in 
legitimate business of a secular nature, teaches. We 
have noticed that ruling of any kind implies teaching 



QUALIFICATIONS OF RULING ELDERS. 339 

of some kind in order to be obeyed intelligently and 
with a willing mind; and especially it must be so in 
sacred ruling, which consists in the disciplinary appli- 
cation of the divine word to offences and the ordinary- 
direction of all affairs according to precepts of the word 
or to logical inferences therefrom. No man is fit to be 
a ruling elder who is not at all "apt to teach." 

The preacher is necessarily a ruler, both keys — that 
of doctrine and that of discipline — being intrinsically 
contained in the authority essential to preaching. But 
ruling to the whole extent of spiritual power is not 
more essential to his office than is teaching to some 
extent essential to the office of ruling elder. The pro- 
fessor in his chair and a licentiate as probationer in the 
pulpit may teach without conception of ruling authority 
in his lessons, but actual office in the Church begins 
because it is authorized and continued by the manifesta- 
tion and proof of such a beginning in lessons of prac- 
tical instruction to the end. Neither admonition nor 
rebuke, nor even comfort, can be administered by any 
elder without some teaching ; and the more lucid the 
process of discipline is made to the understanding, the 
more effectual it is upon the heart and the life. 

It is in this view of inseparable twining together at 
the root that the very same qualifications are alleged of 
two orders in office covered by the common denomina- 
tion of " elder." Two inseparable elements, ruling and 
teaching, pervade alike these branches of office, which 
vary in proportion only and the formality of distinct 
ordination. And although, as we view the full devel- 
opment now, since teaching has become so much more 
the conspicuous and important element in consequence 
of the vast accumulation of lore both for and against 



340 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

Christianity which the teaching elder especially must 
deal with^ yet the true history and the last analysis will 
equally constrain us to find at the basis identity enough 
to be called by the same denomination. The superven- 
ing function which came upon the primitive bench when 
the apostles dropped their mantle of witnessing upon 
it calls for a distinct and specific ordination to herald 
the commission of teaching elders, being made special 
representatives of a world-wide gospel, belonging to the 
Church at large, and yet authorized to remain at home, 
if need be, in joint administration of rule with the local 
governors who sat with them under one and the same 
ordination at the first. 

Nor is this all. There is a space between the pastor 
and the people now which must be filled with author- 
ized teachers — men who are able and willing to teach 
and exhort from house to house, able, in the absence or 
the sickness of the bishop, to lead the worship of a 
whole congregation in a social way of prayer and read- 
ing and familiar exhortation ; else no congregation can 
prosper much with consolidated strength and growth, 
and no pastor can long endure the burden, more onerous 
every year as the flock increases and the culture of the 
world advances. The man who rules well in any church 
must be "apt to teach" in conducting Bible-classes, 
directing Sunday-schools, testing the soundness of in- 
struction there, judging even what the preacher says to 
the people, with meek and kind discrimination " saying 
to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou 
hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it." As a 
teacher the ruling elder may perfectly supply the church 
with that character of immense utility and influence in 
the Methodist polity called the class-leader, and the 



QUALIFICATIOSS OF RULING ELDERS. 341 

whole perplexity with which most churches have been 
tried iu solving the problem of lay-preaching would be 
for ever precluded in our system if only we appreciated 
the ruling elder in the true meaning of his office, and 
selected him according to the scriptural qualifications of 
an elder in general. 

But if we should surrender the broad exegesis of " apt 
to teach" that makes it even more generic than "elder," 
which it qualifies, we would not give up the genus of 
this name in sacred use, for we have it in other prin- 
ciples of interpretation. It is the usage of Scripture to 
say things of a whole order which belong strictly to the 
most prominent part of that order. Thus, in Daut. 
xxxiii. 8, 10, it is said respecting the whole tribe of 
Levi, "They shall teach Jacob God's judgments, and 
Israel his law ; they shall put incense before him, and 
whole burnt-offerings on his altar." And so we are 
told again, when Hezekiah charged them on a particu- 
lar occasion, he thus addressed the Levites in general : 
"My sons, be not now negligent, for the Lord hath 
chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that 
you should minister to him and burn incense." Here 
in one passage the Levites in general are said to have 
been originally appointed, and in the other are expressly 
charged to burn incense. And yet we know from many 
other places that it really belonged to the priests only — 
a part of the Levitical family — to burn incense. (See 
Ex. XXX. 7, 8; Num. xvi. 40; 1 Sam. ii. 28.) Surely 
such a logic of language may be applied to the whole 
family of New-Testament elders. What seems to be 
predicated in one place of all elders or bishops, that 
they must be apt to teach, may well be understood as 
only a distinctive emphasis placed on the most promi- 



342 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

nent portion of the eldership, whilst others in the office 
may still be called '^ elders " just as fairly as the priests 
were Levites, and the house of Aaron belonged to the 
tribe of Levi. 

Rank of Ruling Elder. 

Assuming the genuine sense of " elder " and the war- 
rant for his office from Scripture, expediency and his- 
torical tradition, we must regard the rank of ruling 
elder as equal to that of teaching elder in representative 
power, official jurisdiction and permanent tenure of 
office. 

(1) A representative is made by the gift of God and 
will of the people represented. A certificate of his 
election by a given constituency entitles him to act for 
his people as the peer of any other member in any 
assembly that is called to act for a part or the whole 
visible Church denominated. There his duties are un- 
defined in advance, though circumscribed within certain 
constitutional limits and performed according to the dic- 
tates of his own conscience as well as the true interests 
of his people. Their will has made him more than a 
delegate merely who is to be actuated precisely by the 
will of those who send him. A true representative 
combines with the will of his constituency the w'ill of 
God in his conscience and the superior enlightenment of 
his own mind in the circumstances of any case which 
his constituents cannot know so w^ell. And thus the 
action of a representative may be against the wishes of 
his people, and yet be faithful and true to their best 
welfare and interest. Factor for God and his people 
and himself in his own sincere convictions, his work is 
well done. And thus it is that all eldei's of the Church, 



QUALIFICATIONS OF RULING ELDERS. 343 

teaching and ruling alike, are true representatives of the 
people, though the latter be considered more immediate 
or special because of their manifest contact with the 
represented in secular engagements of life. 

(2) The ruling elder is an officer also in the Church. 
And this is something more than representation. 
Beyond the suffrage which may choose him to stand 
indefinitely for the interest of constituents, he has a 
public duty to perform that is defined and specific, and 
a peculiar formality of induction prescribed in ordina- 
tion, also functions to exercise which are distinct pre- 
rogatives, and he is always presumed to have for the 
place a special fitness or gift which mere election can- 
not bestow. His official functions, like those of the 
teaching elder, may be described as both co-operative 
and single. In co-operation the elders, without dis- 
tinction, exercise jurisdiction together, and govern the 
Church by assemblies. The core of safe representation 
has always been plural : no one man was ever author- 
ized to govern the Church. Safety is in the multitude 
of counsellors, and varieties of office, occupation and 
care always make an assembled council wiser in balan- 
cing and juster in decision. For this reason one house 
of assembled authority is better than two ever since 
apostles, elders and brethren constituted in one body the 
first council at Jerusalem. 

But we are also to distinguish the power of order 
from that of jurisdiction, in which we contemplate the 
diversities of office in the administration of each. The 
teaching elder, by the power of order, is to preach the 
gospel to a congregation statedly, and to dispense the 
sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper ; to exe- 
cute the decisions of any juridical assembly with an 



344 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

authoritative announcement, like that of James in the 
council at Jerusalem, and application of sentence to the 
censured, which is by word ; and also to carry with him the 
commission upon him, to all places, without any formality 
of renewal, as he removes from place to place. On the 
other hand, the ruling elder, by the power of order, in 
representing the people, does all that the people do as re- 
quired in consecrated fellowship to instruct the ignorant, 
warn the unruly, exhort the negligent, comfort the 
afflicted, support the weak, visit the sick, restore the 
fallen, reconcile the variant and contend for the truth, — 
all this under the perfect obligation of office, besides the 
imperfect obligation of charity, in common upon all 
members alike, whether official or unofficial, as they 
have opportunity. The defined responsibility of office 
and the undefined impulse of charity are the double 
weight of duty which deserves the "double honor '^ 
assigned to elders who " rule well." 

What the teaching elder does by the power of his 
order is valid without a vote of the sessional judicatory ; 
what the ruling elder does by the power of his order is 
likewise valid without either bench or bishop to sanction 
it ; but anything done by either of these elders, without 
the other, which belongs to their joint exercise of juris- 
diction is not valid, but null and void, except in cases of 
singular necessity when consistorial advice cannot be 
had and the transaction must wait for approval after 
the fact. Such exceptions, however, may be ventured 
only by the elder who has public teaching and ruling 
united in his office. A parochial bishop may confirm or 
admit a person to sealing ordinances in full communion 
where no other elder is at hand to concur and none to 
hinder, and the exceptional act goes up to a higher 



QUALIFICATIONS OF RULING ELDERS. 345 

judicatory for subsequent review and silent approba- 
tion generally. 

If the teaching elder should baptize an infant irregu- 
larly, contrary to the settled order of the Church in re- 
gard to sponsors, the qualification of the parents or other 
parties that present it, and even the dissent of his Ses- 
sion, the baptism is valid notwithstanding, if it be with 
scriptural formula, because it belongs to his power of 
order distinctly in the great commission ; which power 
of jurisdiction may counsel, but not override or annul. 
If, on the other hand, he should venture to excommuni- 
cate an offender of his own motion, without the vote of 
a church Session, the act is null and void, for it belongs 
to that power of jurisdiction which must be joint in 
numbers. The keys of the kingdom in our hand should 
open with more facility than they shut the door. Philip 
alone could baptize the eunuch, but Paul alone would 
not have the offender at Corinth " put away " without 
process " together " and punishment " inflicted of many." 
The difference of capacity in the distinction thus made is 
not scholastic merely, but practical and analogous, though 
as old as the Church of Scotland, and may serve at once 
to explain the interaction of elders, adjust the modera- 
torship of assemblies and maintain their equality of rank 
in the exercise of the highest ecclesiastical power of juris- 
diction. (See the Second Book of Discipline, A. D. 1578, 
eh. i. sees. 7, 8.) 

(3) Permanency of tenure is the third particular to be 
noticed in the parity of elders. If the preaching elder 
is ordained for life in good behavior, so is the ruling 
elder. Both are officers in the Church, and there is no 
mention made in the Bible of any officer being appointed 
for a definite term of years. Both are rulers, and the 



346 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

original bench of the ecclesia were all rulers, and })er- 
haps rulers only. The supervening commission to 
preach the gospel, which would necessarily select the 
elders best qualified for such a function, did not surely 
break up in terms the life-tenure of a residuary portion 
that remained to rule, and not to preach ; and the dis- 
tinct ordination which afterward came to set apart the 
preaching elder from the people, from tlie world and 
from his ruling peers upon the bench could not with- 
draw from these the term of good behavior, because 
their function in the Church was mixed with other 
legitimate avocations of the present life. Rather, a 
life-tenure would more certainly remain to make trial 
of the good behavior, and make it better and best by 
reason of experience, and gospel institutions now to be 
served and directed, and longer intimacy with human 
nature in the contact of religion with temporal interests 
and things which perish in the using. To be in the 
world, though not of it, to be not taken out of the 
world by premature death or disability or sequestered 
use of talent in his service of any kind, is only an 
answer to the intercession of our Lord on behalf of 
his disciples. 

The distinction made of late years between the office 
and its functions is hardly intelligible at all. What is 
an office without functions to be performed? There 
may be rotation of acting by turns and returning, as 
there anciently was among the classes of Levi in serving 
at the temple, and this agreed upon among themselves ; 
but rotation which runs out indefinitely and looks for a 
restoration of place and time to suifrages unpledged and 
unpromised cannot be called rotation, but rather extinc- 
tion of office, with propriety of speech — so far, at least, 



QUALIFICATIONS OF RULING ELDERS. 347 

as the pei*soual functionary is concerned. The wheel of 
time-service in this way must evolve at length either a 
decadence of the office itself, as Dr. John Owen two 
centuries ago warned the independent churches of Eng- 
land it would do, or be a dead letter in the constitutional 
provision which allows it. The latter is its history in 
the Church of Scotland for eighteen years from 1560. 
When the office of ruling elder was reinstated at 
Geneva by John Calvin, it was with notions of a theo- 
cratical constitution for that little republic in which this 
was done. Regarded as a municipal as well as an eccle- 
siastical officer, the ruling elder was to be chosen every 
year by the votes of a civil as well as of a religious con- 
stituency, blending the two in restoring the people to 
active power in the Church and the State alike. His 
disciple John Knox transported a similar miscellany 
from Geneva to Edinburgh, and improved upon the 
Swiss model in making it less municipal and more 
Levitical in the form of rotation by annual changes. 
He attempted to have a large number of elders selected 
to start with, and to have sections in the sequel to act 
alternately in true rotation, and the alternation to be de- 
termined either among themselves or by the people, or 
both. But the robust independence of Scotch Reform- 
ers began their traditional antagonism to the union of 
Church and State less than a score of years later in 
producing the Second Book of Discipline, W'hi(;h made 
the office of ruling elder distinctly and entirely spiritual, 
its tenure permanent and its personal functions active 
and continuous until superseded by death or by for- 
feiture. This was the standard which the commis- 
sioners from Scotland — Baillie, Douglas, Gillespie, 
Henderson and Rutherford — bore to the Assembly of 



348 CHURCH GOVERNMEST. 

Divines at Westminster in the century following, and 
which, after long and exhaustive discussion there, was 
adopted with but slight modification and engrossed as 
the Directory of Presbyterian ism throughout English 
Christendom. 

Our American Assemblies copied that Directory, 
adopting as its formula in the " Form of Government " 
these words : " The offices of ruling elder and deacon 
are both perpetual, and cannot be laid aside at pleasure. 
No person can be divested of either office but by deposi- 
tion.'^ The continental Presbyterianism of Europe prac- 
tically tends to the same consolidation, for the popular 
election becomes a formality of but little interest, and 
less attention, from time to time, and results with few 
exceptions, in a lifelong return of the same individuals 
chosen. The Church of Holland has, moreover, a 
grand consistory in which the functionary who has 
not been re-elected may sit in council with acting elders 
to deliberate and vote on certain measures of special im- 
portance, thus perpetuating the official tenure in a quali- 
fied way. The Reformed Church of France (Huguenot) 
adopted in their " Discipline " the seventh canon, thus : 
" The office of elders and deacons, as it is now in use 
among us, is not perpetual ; yet because changes are not 
commodious they shall be exhorted to continue in their 
offices as long as they can, and they shall not lay them 
down without having first obtained leave from their 
churches.'^ 

The recent innovation upon our practice adopted by 
the Northern Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, 
that authorizes a particular church to choose the ruling 
elders for a triennial tenure only, probably will gravi- 
tate before long in the same way as in the older coun- 



QUALIFICATIONS OF RULING ELDERS. 349 

tries, because the prevailing reason for its adoption has 
been the newness of our country, the paucity of material 
for eldership — in new settlements especially — and the 
tentative process through which they pass in the com- 
ing and going so much of suitable persons for office. 
Doubtless the change was also a compromise of opposite 
opinions about the nature, need and warrant for this 
office itself in our economy of representation. But 
time will try it well. Fair experiment of time-service, 
which seems to have come like a patch on our constitu- 
tion, will work out eventually, it is hoped, more homo- 
geneity than ever on this pivotal point of Presbyterian 
polity. Especially, seeing the great majority of Pres- 
byterian churches at the North, and all of them at the 
South, decline the experiment and cleave to the West- 
minster Directory in organization and practice, we may 
hope that the generations following will combine to 
eliminate the incongruous element from our system. 

The periodical return of election for elders not only 
on the one hand works out a disparagement of rank, 
but on the other hand also an avoidance of discipline as 
an ordinance of God which is to be administered by a 
representative tribunal. The ruling elders, composing a 
great majority of officers on the bench in primary assem- 
blies of judicature, if elected every three years by the 
people, naturally feel themselves to be amenable to the 
voters more than to their peers in the judicatory itself, 
and so the oversight of the Session in ordering the 
retirement of an unfaithful or an unacceptable elder 
according to the old provision of the '^ Form " (chap. 
xiii.) is made useless, and such discipline passes from 
the book to the ballot, and from a judicial process 
against which the aggrieved might a2)peal to a silent 



350 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

conspiracy, it might be, from uliich there can be no 
redress or appeal, however undeserved and severely felt 
may be the condemnation of non-election for another 
period. 

Repeated election is not required to make or to keep 
a true representative of the people, much less an officer 
over them, called of God, and least of all a judicial 
officer for God, as the elder is. It is enough to have 
been elected once by their untrammelled suffrage when 
he remains one of themselves in his occupation, affinities 
and sympathies ; and in the very nature of its exercise 
the office to which they have chosen him keeps him in- 
timately conversant with their wishes and influence. 
The pastor himself is a representative of the people, 
not only as he too is a ruler in the spiritual episcopacy 
of his charge, but also as he is a preacher by the great 
commission which at the Ascension came as a supreme 
behest upon the apostolic and catholic body of Christ. 
Yet this double representation in the bishop calls for 
only one election by the people, and surely his coequal 
in one capacity should be settled in one election. In- 
deed, representative men grow up to be such among the 
people by habitation alone and by the tacit regard and 
deference rendered to them in the community for their 
wisdom, virtue and enterprise, and they are called 
representative in the common use of language, without 
formal candidacy or voting at all, though, of course, 
made official by suffrage and induction. 

This acquiescent way of choosing representatives in 
silent assent has come down to us from a remote antiq- 
uity of our faith and is quite as old as work at the 
tabernacle in the Wilderness under the direction of 
Moses. The announcement of their leader that God 



QUALIFICATIONS OF RULING ELDERS. 351 

had called and qualified any one for any work was 
enough to engage the people in acceptance and obedi- 
ence without a word of canvass or challenge on their 
part. When " Moses said unto the children of Israel, 
See, the Lord hath called by name Bezaleel,'' etc., 
" then wrouo;ht Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise- 
hearted man, in wdiom the Lord put wisdom and under- 
standing to know how to work for the service of the 
sanctuary, according to all that the Lord commanded.^' 
Ex. xxxvi. 1. Such was the typical beginning of elec- 
tions to the work of office in the Church : a nomination 
of the man, a description of his fitness, the kind of 
work, and, above all, the evidence of a divine call to it, 
were the whole of suffi-age at first by Avay of silent 
assent. In subsequent ages of old the main ecclesias- 
tical feature, a ruling eldership in every synagogue, was 
doubtless appointed with tokens of approbation by the 
unofficial members in diversified modes, according to the 
best authorities ; but there is not a trace to be found in all 
Jewish antiquities of repeated elections for the continu- 
ance of the same individual elders. We hinge on that 
ecclesia, we copy from that model. The glories of 
Pentecost intervening stamp our New-Testament elder- 
ship with the image and superscription of gifts from 
God as the prime qualification for candidates. And is 
it because God has withdrawn all evidence of this that 
any particular church will reverse the nomination or 
try, and try again, to find it continued and safe ? His 
gifts and calling are without repentance, and why should 
we make room for ours in vacating places by experi- 
ment? 

It is also proper that an elder's judicial function 
should be commensurate in time with the duration of 



352 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

discipline as it is properly administered in any given 
case. Difficult and important cases are often prolonged 
indefinitely, not only in the stages of process through 
which they are drawn, but in the patient waiting of 
elders to see fruits meet for repentance under the inflic- 
tion of censure with a view to restore the offender to 
confidence and communion or to cast him away as a 
reprobate. The writer was familiar with one case in 
pastoral life which lasted over thirty years, and only the 
death of the ofi^ender ended the importunity with which 
he tried to regain a standing in fellowship just as often 
as a new member, whether bishop or elder, was added 
to the Session. His restoration at any time would have 
been discreditable to the communion, exchanging, as he 
did, one sin for another as age advanced and as the fla- 
grancy of the original crime was forgotten. Yet a rotary 
eldership, so called, without tradition of memory to the 
contrary withstanding, would probably have rolled him 
in, whilst the old men of lifelong tenure in office who 
remembered the offence, the impenitence, the shifting 
hardness and the failure of conferences to convict of sin 
would still obstruct the readmission without more evi- 
dence of a saving change. 

But church discipline is delicate, also, as it is chronic. 
To the tardiness of wise and prudent consideration and 
the indefinite prolongation of a charitable hope must be 
joined a secrecy which the reiteration of popular elec- 
tions would spoil. The canvass for new elders must 
open up the proceedings of old elders and submit to a 
virtual arbitration by the people what is sacred to the 
bench, and cannot appeal to such a constituency for justi- 
fication without annihilating that true confessional where 
a sinner gets the only absolution that man may dispense 



QUALIFICATIONS OF RULING ELDFRS. 353 

in judicial form. Conscience will not stand the gaze 
of publicity without induration ; judges will not bear 
the scrutiny which winnows their motives and unveils 
their conferences and compels them to spread the knowl- 
edge of oifences in order to justify themselves and secure 
a continuance in office. Nor will the best men fitted 
for this high spiritual office allow themselves to be 
chosen or accept after an actual election if they are not 
allowed the benefit of experience assured to them in the 
tenure of eldership without returning to the people for 
a verdict before their crudities are cured or their service 
is accomplished. 

There is, moreover, a comparative injustice to ruling 
elders in being made liable to loss of office by short 
terms of tenure. They are the local governors of the 
Church, adapted, we may presume, to the peculiar char- 
acter and circumstances of tlie particular congregation 
where they rule, and, it might be, unfit for ruling any- 
where else than the congregation w^here they belong. 
When dropped in the periodical return of election, they 
must abide there, divested of office probably for lifetime, 
without alternative and the possibility, perhaps, of ever 
knowing why the voters have set them aside. On the 
other hand, the teaching elder belongs to the whole 
Church. When superseded in one place, he goes to 
another with a plenitude of office which no mere election 
may vacate. For the power to rule is intrinsic to the 
ministry of the word, clothed as it is in authority for 
all the varieties of use and application — a sentence and 
a sword as well as a defence and an edification. Here, 
then, is obvious inequality of ruling office. Upon the 
one repeated election may bring irreparable dispossession; 
on the other it only shifts the officer to another field — it 
2:^ 



3e54 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

may be of more advantage than ever — in the exercise 
of authority and influence. This upsets the foundation 
of our polity, and consistency would require two houses 
instead of one wherever the judicatories above a Session 
consist of equal numbers from the two classes of elders, 
bishops in the upper house and laymen — called " elders '' 
— in the lower, and the whole denominated "conven- 
tion ^^ instead of " assembly/' 

Duties of Ruling Elders. 

These are to be drawn mostly from the qualifications 
enumerated in Scripture, and much from the visible cir- 
cumstances of the Church and notable exigences in her 
annals. Being the main office of her government under 
all dispensations, there must be some accommodation to 
changes in its nature — an elastic essence in its functions 
which resembles expediency alone. Having been patri- 
archal, Jewish, Christian, Catholic and lleformed by 
turns, and in such succession eternal as the principle of 
representation itself — without which no government of 
men could endure in Church or in State — the very occlu- 
sion with which it has had to run through mountain- 
obstructions even to this day shows how pervading 
and rebounding it is and the outcome of its destiny 
must be. The expansive usefulness of an eldei-ship 
in government, however, must embrace both the teach- 
ing and the ruling officers of this name, each of them 
representative, and the latter immediately and espe- 
cially so. 

I. The first duty, therefore, of a ruling elder is to 
represent the people in membership by an example of 
performing in Christian duty what is enjoined by the 
word of God or by instructions of the Church derived 



QUALIFICATIONS OF RULING ELDERS. 355 

therefrom. He directs mainly by leading and rules 
mostly by submitting a pattern of obedience in him- 
self to the doctrine of Christ and laws of a sj)iritMal 
kingdom. He is to be the emphatic man in serving 
if he would be acknowledged as a chief man among 
the rulers at the sanctuary. To visit the sick, to com- 
fort the afflicted, to receive the stranger, to admonish the 
wayward and to support the weak he is bound by the 
distinctively double obligation of charity and office. 
The indefinite impulse of the one and the definite force 
of the other combine to make a ruling elder the eminent 
Christian. 

II. He is to be an intermediate teacher between the 
bishop and the people, apt to teach in a sphere of in- 
struction which, though not exclusive, is practically 
wider than that of the pastor himself. It was a dis- 
tinctive province of the elders in every synagogue of 
God while the temple-service endured in Israel to pro- 
vide instruction of families, — children and youth in all 
the rudiments of religion, male and female, servants and 
handmaids — whilst the male head of the family would 
seek instruction from the priests at the temple, besides, 
only thrice in the year. The family institute accord- 
ingly descends as a trust to the bench of elders through 
all generations to enlighten it and cherish within it a 
safe administration of the family covenant by directing 
the parents to teach their children the fear of God and 
love of Christ, protecting this tuition from the com- 
munism which would toss it out and leave it in schools 
that would engross it all and set the natural sponsors 
free from sacred obligation. The Sunday-school, there- 
fore, must be dominated mainly by ruling elders, who 
will either teach the classes themselves or appoint the 



356 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

teachers they approve to do it rightly and with the 
help of sound and choice and adequate literature. Bible- 
classes, also, and choirs, and everything, in short, belong- 
ing to the province of catechetics in its range and import, 
should recognize the authority of elders and yield to the 
guidance of their consistorial assembly. 

This plurality in private and social ministration of 
course includes the teaching elder, who is bishop, the 
first among equals in all the varieties of instruction, but it 
must not engross all his functions, for beyond theirs he 
preaches the gospel, administers the sacraments and earns 
his bread with exclusive franchise in exchanging spiritual 
things for carnal. Only in extremities of need like that 
imagined by Luther in supposition are the people author- 
ized to make a ruling elder be their preacher without reg- 
ular and distinct ordination. Yet less than that extremity 
would be sufficient to justify a certain approximation 
which is expressly mentioned in the Form of Govern- 
ment, ch. xxi., where either " elders or deacons " may 
perform a becoming service in " vacant congregations 
assembling for public worship." Even a partial vacancy 
in the pulpit, when the preacher is sick or absent, would 
fairly invite a ruling elder to lead the public worship in 
reading, prayer, praise and exhortation. 

III. He holds in joint deliberation the keys of ad- 
mission or exclusion in discriminating the worthiness of 
those who seek to enter into full communion and the un- 
worthiness of those who forfeit the privilege by misde- 
meanor and impenitence. Investigations to be made in 
pursuance of this duty are specially the task of ruling 
elders in their peculiar episcopacy. In immediate con- 
tact with the world as they are, and penetrating on the 
walks of business, where all opportunities are available 



QUALIFICATIONS OF RULING ELDERS. 357 

to their insight, the ma.sk of vice and proof of virtue, 
they are best qualified for judging human nature as it 
must be known to ensure a safe and righteous use of 
the keys — that opening and shutting in the house of 
Christ which is given to representative authorities in 
his name. Agents at the points of contact between the 
Church and the world are the best judges of both. 
Only an active participation in the average interests 
of both will be competent to balance fairly and dis- 
tinguish wisely the characteristics of true Christianity 
in the present life. The " Reformed " branch of the 
great Reformation in Europe was known for its ethical 
purity throughout all Christendom by reason of the dis- 
cipline which ruling elders conducted when, without this 
feature of polity, morals languished on every side, the 
best confessions were tarnished and the reproach of men 
hindered the progress and spread of faith. 

IV. Ruling elders are the main judicial element of 
the Presbyterian system — the mitre as well as the keys 
resting on them to represent the people. They are 
primary courts or Sessions where they are in the aggre- 
gate a vast majority of officers to exercise original juris- 
diction for the whole Church in judging wisely for the 
smaller part, and beyond these lower judicatories to con- 
stitute an equal representation in the higher and highest 
tribunals assembled, which hold appellate jurisdiction 
and consult for the widest interests of the visible Church 
on earth. It is their special duty, therefore, to study the 
constitution and the polity of the Church with constant 
care, and to teach the generations wdiile they pass how to 
behave themselves in the house of God and how to j^re- 
vent offences which may rise in the gradations of review 
or appeal to the greatest notoriety of scandal, and may 



358 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

cause the weak to stumble and the enemy to blaspheme. 
The preponderating power in a Presbyterian system 
should certainly be well informed, and not be led 
blindly by any minority, however educated it may 
be. The vigor of common sense must be enlightened, 
the majority vote must be wisely directed, the responsi- 
bility of elders must be sensible in proportion to its 
weight and cultured well in proportion to its inde- 
pendence. 

V. Their duty is to guard the pulpit also and advise 
the incumbent there with respectful heed in regard to 
the exercise even of his own power of order, without 
arrogating that power to themselves at all or subjecting 
it to the judicatory which they compose in great part 
numerically. In dispensing all the ordinances of a par- 
ticular church they are to be counsellors and assistants 
of the pastor, upholding his hands, extending his work, 
devising ways and means and times and places for the 
ministrations belonging to his order. It is their duty, 
also, rather than the deacon's, to distribute the elements 
in sacramental communion to the worthy receivers, be- 
cause they are presumed to know best who these are, 
having acted authoritatively in admitting them to fel- 
lowship and continuing a watchful care of them in that 
spiritual oversight which belongs to them jointly with 
the pastor. 

This guardianship and supplementary assistance to 
the sacred desk constituted the original burden of an 
elder's office. For the pulpits at the beginning, in Old- 
Testament times, were all comparatively vacant and 
trusted in procuring supplies to the wisdom and faith- 
fulness of ruling elders. Prophets, priests and Levites 
in general were the supply to be had for conducting 



QUALIFICATIONS OF RULING ELDERS. 359 

public woi\4iip and instruction at the synagogue. An 
individual fixedness of the pastoral tie belongs to the 
Christian era. Any one that came along "in the spirit 
and demonstration of a prophet'' would be invited to 
hold forth in teaching or exhortation only by the elders. 
Levites were domiciled at convenient distances to be 
sent for by these elders when gifted strangers failed to 
offer themselves or to appear at the proper time. And 
this primitive agency remains a prerogative of ruling 
elders. When a particular church becomes vacant by 
the removal of a teaching elder from the bishop's place, 
the body of that joint authority which sits on the adja- 
cent bench (as it used to be, in the literal sense, also) 
rise up to the task of obtaining another bishop. They 
are naturally and reasonably and prescriptively the- 
'* committee of supplies," and it is only disparagement 
to them and unseemly disorder for a congregation to 
raise a committee of the kind by promiscuous nomina- 
tion of members who have no such official responsibility 
on their shoulders. 

These main varieties of duty express the central im- 
portance of this feature in visible organization. Orig- 
inal, continued and perpetual as it is under a diversity 
of names when its functions are divided, but always the 
same denomination when these are united, we cannot 
overestimate the value of this office. Nor should we 
ever be in haste to organize a new church before finding 
some one or two at leaat of the people fairly qualified 
for the ruling eldership. A church may live without a 
bishop, but not without an elder. It may thrive in 
numbers and usefulness without stated preaching, but 
not without being led and regulated by a plurality of 
ruling eldei-s. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE DEACONS. 

KEEPING in view the continuity of the Church 
through both Testaments of revealed religion, and 
especially that visible ecclesia, or synagogue, which 
united in its ordinances of worship all that was sacred 
and spiritual in the tabernacle or temple of old, after 
Christ came in the flesh and the glorious ministration 
of the Spirit came to endow his disciples and apostles, 
we shall more definitely understand the process by which 
appellative words were made into proper and official 
names. And no one of these, we should observe, has 
had an application to persons generally so much as 
"deacon." The word didxoi^oCy both male and female 
in its gender, is given to every officer, from the supreme 
head himself to the lowest functionary in his kingdom. 
It is only when catalogued with other names of New- 
Testament office that it is defined and special. In its 
etymological sense it signifies a hasty and dust-covered 
messenger — one who runs on his errand with prompt- 
ness and energy. It is explained, also, by the synonyms 
which come near its meaning. Aoi)Xo^, "a slave," is 
one of these, meaning a lower and less free obedience. 
depdncov is another, meaning attendance on a superior 
with free volition and kind intent. And still another 
is ' TnT^peTT]^, one who does service to a superior, as a 

360 



THE DEACONS. ;36l 

rower does in obedience to a marine commander. All 
these different terms, expressing ministry, contribute 
their meaning more or less to the ^' deacon," added to 
the sense of urgent business in duty which this word 
itself imports. 

But the question to be asked here is, "By what 
name in Greek does the diacouate of the Old-Testament 
ecclesia descend to the New-Testament vocabulary of 
office?'^ If we should venture a priori to answer, it 
would be an antithetic word to npsa^urspoi — namely, 
vecorepoc, or vsai^caxoc. Both of these words for "young 
men " are used in performing deacon's work, according 
to the practice of the synagogue, in quickly removing 
from a religious meeting the dead bodies of Ananias 
and Sapphira. Acts v. It is worthy of special notice 
that the next chapter (Acts vi.) opens with a reorganiza- 
tion of the deacon's office in order to suit the fulness of 
time in gathering the Christian Church. The deaconship 
of the synagogue originally seems to have been local and 
narrow, yet various in duty, embracing all the menial 
employment of the sacristan, or sexton, in later times, 
along with the collection and disbursement of alms. 
Each synagogue had its own deacon or deacons, and 
of course expended the alms collected therein upon 
its own poor; and synagogues of the Dispersion were 
accustomed to send alms to Jerusalem for the festive 
occasions, besides the relief reserved for the poor of 
their own respective localities. Hence the surprise and 
vexation of the Hellenistic Jews at seeing their widows 
neglected at Jerusalem, where the overplus of their own 
alms had been carried for generations. 

The apostles, having attracted a multitude of disci- 
ples to their ministry and hearing this murmur of the 



362 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

strangers, at once comprehended the necessities of the 
situation — that an obligation rested on themselves to 
provide an impartial and adequate supply for the clam- 
orous need. Yet such affairs were incompatible with 
their own supreme vocation to pray and to preach the 
gospel. They did not set aside the '' young men '^ who 
had been so instantly at hand in the previous chapter to 
do a deacon's service, nor did they supersede, with any 
intimation, the beneficent machinery of previous time as 
now and henceforth unsuitable for the vast enlargement 
of the Church ; but they called upon the discipled mul- 
titude around them to choose a band of seven commis- 
sioners, honest and spiritual and wise men, ^* whom we 
may appoint over this business '^ — that is, to superin- 
tend the arduous work of benevolence in that and all 
similar exigences of the time. These were not called, 
then or afterward, " deacons '' at all, but " the seven /' 
six of them were Grecians by name, and all of them were 
above the level of mere almoners in retail and far beyond 
the minor activities of a deacon as inherited from the 
synagogue of old. Two at least of these phenomenal 
"seven'' belonged to the ministry of gifts and became 
illustrious confessors in subsequent history — Philip, in 
his promotion to the work of a great evangelist, and 
Stephen, to die with angelic face and defensive elo- 
quence on his lips, the proto-apologist and proto-raartyr 
of Christendom. 

Yet indirectly and really that superior quality of the 
seven who ^vere chosen for an emergency at first, to 
superintend the work of deacons and assist as well as 
relieve the apostles in their momentous engagement of 
duty, came upon the office of deacon with ennobling 
effect — not to make them preachers, for the main reason 



THE DEACONS. 363 

of the appointment was that the apostles might give 
themselves exclusively to that commission along with 
prayer; not to be ranked, perhaps, on any plane of 
office in the ministry of orders, teaching, ruling or 
serving; for the examples we have mentioned above 
would indicate a transitory exercise of preternatural 
gifts which belonged to that age alone. This was the 
opinion of Chrysostom. The solemnity of setting them 
apart with prayer and the laying on of hands would, of 
coiii*se, identify them to some extent with the order of 
deacons over which they were appointed to look and act 
as directors for the time being. The impress of that in- 
cidental direction would remain to dignify the deacon, 
making the generic name an honorable designation fit for 
any office, however exalted. And the stamp of this re- 
organized -importance may be seen perpetually afterward, 
in the development of this office by the pastoral Epistles 
of inspiration, as " holding the mystery of the faith in a 
pure conscience,^^ and also by the subsequent course of 
history, in separating from a deaconship the cares of a 
sexton and the humble occupations of a sub-deacon. 

Notwitlistanding all this elevation and progress of the 
office, however, it lingered among the associations of 
minor duty. Even above middle age of life was chosen, 
as well as youth, and " deacons " were to be " proved " 
first, and they might be husbands and fathers and must 
be "grave" as elders in character and demeanor. They 
were minor officials in grade, and by the primitive writers, 
as we have seen, were often called Levites, on account of 
a miscellaneous employment in sacred things, and the 
miscellany of years in age. We have in 1 Pet. v. 5 a 
striking antithesis between elder and deacon carried on, 
though partially hidden by the authorized translation : 



364 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

"Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the 
elder/^ Tiiis " younger ^^ cannot mean the people, in 
distinction from their officers, else the clause immediately 
subjoined (" Yea, all of you be subject one to another ") 
would be tautology. The appellatives " younger '^ and 
'' young men " were undoubtedly tropical of minor office 
in the old ecclesia. Oar Lord himself, in Luke xxii. 26, 
has indicated this : " He that is greatest among you, let 
him be as the younger." The bfisi^cov in this clause we 
see interpreted in the next clause by the 6 rjyo'j/isi^o^, 
which is a familiar name for the higher office of the 
Church — " and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.'' 
In this way the contention between Dr. Mosheim and 
Dr. Miller may be composed without an error on either 
side. It is obviously credible to say with the former 
that the record in the first verses of Acts vi. is that of 
an addition of overseers, at least, to an order of office 
already existing; and to say, with the latter, it is the 
first institution of this office in the Christian Church. 
Instead of being the origination, absolutely, it is a re- 
construction, of the deaconship on a pressing occasion 
by the appointment of popular and gifted men to superin- 
tend the work of deacons and to elevate their office above 
the menial activities of the past to a dignity of benevo- 
lence proportioned to the grand development of need in 
the Christian Church. Herein, also, we have an interest- 
ing parallel to the position already suggested respecting 
elders in the Christian economy as they Avere elevated to 
the apostolic plane of teaching and preaching the gospel 
— that is, all that were gifted and called to this work — 
by the great commission devolved on them entirely as 
the witnessing errand of the apostles ended. As the 
great minor office of the Church was exalteti iji service 



THE DEACONS. 365 

at the beginning of gos}x;l promulgation by apostolic 
men, so the great major office of our ecclesia, under all 
dispensations, was widened at length for all the world 
over by the commission of elders innumerable to preach 
as well as to rule at the demise of original and inspired 
witnesses for Christ. 

Let us, therefore, contemplate more closely the nature 
of this office from the standpoint which was made at the 
renovation over which presided ^' the seven " by the 
motion of apostles and the election by disciples, confirmed 
with the solemnity of ordination. We cannot, of course, 
enter into the detail of previous work, which was much 
the same in the care and management of sacred things 
among all the religions of history, whether true or false. 
The custody, the handling, the robing, the providing, the 
purchasing, the lighting, the cleaning, the arranging, the 
carrying of any consecrated things that are tangible, — all 
these have been distributed in a great variety of ways, 
and to a great variety of subordinate persons, ever since 
" the seven '^ took charge of the diaconate and made it a 
spiritual office like that of the eldership. Now, more 
than ever, the giving of one's substance to the Lord 
and alms to the poor for the Lord's sake is an act of 
worship, a spiritual sacrifice acceptable to him. The 
sublime spirit of a Stephen or a Philip is the heritage 
of our deacons ; and " 1 am among you as one that 
serveth,'' said He who ^' hath on his vesture and on 
his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord 
OF LORDS." Yet the scope of spiritual service belong- 
ing to this minor office In the Church must not be con- 
sidered as either inchoate or indefinite : it is a defini- 
tively perfect office. 

Certainly a license to preach without permission to 



366 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

dispense the sacrameuts, whicli the novitiate hastens to 
leave as a mere probation for the ministry, should not 
be called the function of a deacon. Three orders in the 
ministry when the first and the second are but steps to 
the third and highest in the aspirations of a candidate 
are not three, but one in the light of actuality and 
common sense. As well might we claim three orders 
of the ministry in matriculation at a theological semi- 
nary as the first, license to preach as the second and or- 
dination to the office of our bishop as the third in a 
Presbyterian system. God has not so appointed the 
offices pertaining to his everlasting gospel. These are 
all perpetual, not one of them inchoate, as a lower step 
is for a higher, not one of them too narrow for an angePs 
operation, when the Head over all deigned to become a 
deacon — '^ minister of the circumcision." It is the dis- 
tinctive sublimity of office in the Church of God to 
repress man's ambition, to forestall " emulations,'^ that 
work of the flesh, and make the lowest incumbent satis- 
fied with his lot and contented to magnify the office with 
which he is already invested. 

As the office of deacon is not inchoation or a begin- 
ning merely, so also it is not vague or indefinite as to its 
duties, however spiritual it has now become and freed 
from the menial minuteness with which it was anciently 
encumbered. The negative side of its definiteness ap- 
pears in the sixteenth canon of the Council at Constan- 
tinople (a. d. 680) : " The Scripture deacons are no other 
than overseers of the poor, and this is the 0})ini()n of the 
Fathers.'' These Fathers were Polycarp, Hernias, Ori- 
gen, Cyprian, Eusebius, Ambrose, Jerome, Chrysostom 
and Sozomon the historian, followed to the Reformation 
and after it by the Waldenses, Wickliffe, Tyndal, Lam- 



THE DEACONS. 367 

bert, the Lutheran, Swiss, French and Holland churches; 
and, without citing a long list of Anglican authorities, 
by the venerated American bishop White of Philadel- 
phia, who wrote thus : "All I contend for is that at the 
first institution of the order there could have been no 
difference between them and laymen in regard to the 
teaching of the word and the administering of the 
sacraments." 

The positive side of its definite nature is expressed 
comprehensively in the phrase dtaxovttv rpani^at^j to 
" serve tables." The metonymy or figurative sense of 
this expression after " the seven " superintendents in the 
ministry of gifts took the charge of this department off 
the hands of the apostles in its new plenitude of care, and 
over the diversified concern of an old diaconate, may be 
extended almost indefinitely. The whole interest of 
Christian benevolence, in its object, system, method, 
occasion, motive, amount, collection and disbursement, 
are legitimate varieties in the scope of this minor office. 
And in proportion as the visible Church is prospered in 
the world by the accession of numbers, by the accumu- 
lation of wealth and by the applications of misery from 
the poor, the sick, the unfortunate, the perishing, at 
home or abroad, we have the province enlarged of a 
deacon's functions. In fact, the prodigious expansion 
of finance in the vantage and economies of the present 
age would seem to uplift this office to a practical mas- 
tery of management in directing the Church as well as 
the State. The deaconship, moreover, is not an agency 
or instrument merely, but an office also, and therefore 
essentially authoritative to a certain extent, though not 
self-adjusting. 

In place of " the seven " from the ministry of gifts, 



368 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

and of the apostles also from the immediate commission 
of the Master, we have perpetually the elders, teaching 
and ruling, to superintend the functional work of dea- 
cons ; and as the original superintendence came at once 
to relieve the office of menial drudgery and exalt it 
more to the sphere of spiritual function, so it is compe- 
tent to the assembly of elders, teaching and ruling, to 
discriminate in the assignment of task to this minor 
offiice against the secularization of the latter in too 
much business of building and banking, just as far as 
it appears to be safe in keeping or disposing of temporal 
estate. Hence the modern device of trusteeship, to con- 
stitute a point of contact between the Church and the 
State — a creation of the latter sought and accepted by 
the former to secure protection, convenience and facility 
of legal transactions. Severed, however, in this way 
from overmuch burden of carnal things, the deacon- 
ship should not relinquish care and acquiesce in such a 
method of expediency without some active representa- 
tion ; and the higher directory is in fault w^hen it allows 
a body of secular men, some or all of whom may be 
non-communicants within, to be incorporated and to act 
without the counsel and presence of deacons, more or less, 
to assist them, or in allowing their edifice of worship to 
be used for any purpose without express permission from 
the elders. The interaction of elders and deacons may 
thus be guided with mutual edification to themselves 
and profit to the people. The superintendence must not 
be dictatorial nor the service a slavery : the independ- 
ence of office at the lower degree is the same as that of 
the higher degree. The deacons should report to the 
elders at stated times their proceedings, and the latter 
should consider well the report, approving or disapprov- 



THE DEACONS. 369 

ing, but not annulling, what has been done. Any issue 
made upon the validity of transaction itself should be 
carried to a higher tribunal of representation. 

These two offices should be kept for ever distinct 
from each other, notwithstanding the approximation 
of one to the other in spiritual function since the days 
of Stephen and Philip. Powers of government should 
always be kept in a balance. When one outweighs the 
other, disorder comes ; and when one absorbs the other, 
despotism comes. A difference of function is most use- 
ful when it makes a reciprocal check of administration ; 
and it is always good to have concurrence of judg- 
ment between two bodies — practically a greater force 
than unanimity in one body, however massive this may 
be in agreement. Hence the original usage in the Re- 
formed Church of Scotland, to gather elders and deacons 
together in council at that conjuncture when union was 
strength in every way and lords of the laity required it, 
could not continue long without making an amalgam of 
both offices which it required many generations after to 
solve and separate with intelligible difference. So in 
the first organization of elderships in this country, the 
sparse and scanty supply of suitable men for each, and 
the confused apprehension of both offices at first, made 
the American churches very slow to discern the differ- 
ence, and slower still to feel the need of a distinct office 
in the deacon for the full equipment of a church. It 
was only in the last generation that repeated injunctions 
of the General Assembly could persuade the people to 
choose deacons and elders both as a common formation 
distinctly made; and even yet many churches may be 
found without this development of the two, most of 
them being jealous of innovation, and of much office, 

24 



370 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

haviDg only elders in the name, and some of them only 
" deacons," in their familiar parlance. 

The need of having both these offices distinctly 
organized in every particular church may be urged — 

1. Because it is the scriptural pattern of a complete 
church. The synagogue at Nazareth where our Lord 
" had been brought up " — the church that he attended 
from his youth, " as his custom was " — incidentally fur- 
nished a form of this completeness, on the occasion of 
his first preaching in Galilee. Luke iv. 20. Permission 
was given to him by the ruling eldei*s to read and speak 
in that sanctuary. And there was ''delivered unto him 
the book," as "he stood up for to read ;" and after he 
had read what he opened the book to find, " he closed 
the book, and he gave it again to the minister and sat 
down." The ''niiuister" is called in the oritjinal tuj. 
bnrjpirTj, which, as we have already noticed, is a synonym 
for dtdxovoQ — ''deacon." The minuteness of these minor 
incidents makes the picture only the more complete. 
Service must be impersonated, as well as ruling and 
teaching, distinctly ; and if it must be thus complete in 
the meeting, how much more must it be so in the varied 
responsibilities of movement and transaction pertaining 
to a visible church ! Material equipment in persons 
must belong alike to the house, the work, the road and 
the destination of incarnate Christianity. 

2. Mero^ino; one of these offices in the other must lead 
to confused apprehension of either and of both. AYhen 
the office of deacon became the favorite of bishops iu 
the earlier development of prelacy, with the purpose of 
neutralizing and abolishing a ruling eldership for its 
natural resistance to episcopal ambition and usurpation, 
utter confusion followed in history and in councils at 



THE DEACONS. 371 

every attempt to define the province of the surviving 
office, that of elder being put away out of sight. As 
we descend throui^-h mist and chantye toward the dark- 
ness of mediaeval ages, we find the office of deacon made 
the most obscure, perplexed and inconsistent office that 
was ever instituted by either Church or State. Natu- 
rally enough, the deacon was everything to the bishop 
himself, now that he had removed the intermediate elder 
and there was no longer a bench between his chair and 
the standing creatures of his power called by Jerome 
" servitos." One writes that they were " eyes and ears, 
heart and mouth, soul and perception, to the bishop," 
and he was everything to them. They could even 
preach and baptize when he bade them and sent the 
chrism to their hands. They could represent him in 
any council as proxy, and yet were not allowed to de- 
liberate and vote unless in provincial councils, where 
they sat as scribes and disputants. They could enrich 
themselves and rise in pride and social standing to the 
highest rank of influence, and yet they were not per- 
mitted to sit in the presence of a presbyter, but had still 
to stand and wait in token of the original distinction. 
They could carry the sacramental elements to the people, 
present or absent, but not at all to the presbyter, be- 
cause they were not authorized to consecrate them. 
Then fantastic varieties were made in their vestments, 
their grades, numbers, age and classes : we read of 
archdeacons and subdeacons and cardinal deacons and 
regionary deacons and stationary deacons and testi- 
monial deacons. This last variety were so called be- 
cause they lived with the bishop so intimately and con- 
stantly that they could be witnesses to the world that 
he was a pure man in private life. And of course he 



372 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

was to be reciprocally witness for them after they were 
forbidden to marry, notwithstanding the canonical direc- 
tions of the apostle Paul respecting the deacon's mar- 
ried life. 

Happily, the converse merging of the deacon's office 
in that of the ruling elder which has been allowed so 
much in Presbyterian churches cannot be chargeable, as 
yet, with similar deflection of the elder's office and char- 
acter, but the tendency is dangerous to the vital interest 
and the wisely balanced equities of our system. It has 
already stamped a backwardness upon churches mixed in 
this way along that path of progress which is the glory 
of this age — giving freely and systematically of what God 
has given to us of worldly substance for the spread of 
the gospel and the establishment of its institutions. A 
deaconship especially devoted to the work of beneficence, 
missions and education, as well as alms for the poor and 
asylums for the suffering, must be single, with its badge 
or stole on the left shoulder and its right arm free from 
trammel to sustain the activities of a kingdom which 
has come, and is coming more fully, as a benediction 
to the world. It must be acknowledged that benevo- 
lent contributions languish wherever there is no dis- 
tinct board of deacons to stimulate them and manage 
them with special care. ^' Orthodox and stingy " is the 
brand upon churches of the Presbyterian family which 
have all sorts of elders and no sort of deacons. 

3. One of these offices Avill be enough to engross the 
time and energy of a man who is engaged in the proper 
avocations of life, which bring that contact and famil- 
iarity with tlie world which both offices require in order 
to administer them successfully and wisely. The multi- 
form shapes of charity must be studied along with the 



THE DEACONS. 373 

norm and principle and scope of this grace given in 
God's word. The resources in ways and means must 
be scanned and computed, the characters of both bene- 
factors and beneficiaries must be found out, the fields of 
destitution and misery must be contemplatod, the pro- 
portion of shares in all varieties of distribution must 
be adjusted fairly ; and, above all, the spiritual elevation 
of church-work, as it was ordered when the charisms of 
Pentecost were called for to qualify ^' the seven " or- 
dained to the oversight of this department — " full of 
the Holy Ghost and wisdom,'' — all these require time 
and care which can hardly be afforded by the industries 
of ordinary livelihood, much less by the occupations of 
any other office besides. 

On the other hand, the office of ruling elder at its 
position in the system, exercising an oversight of the 
deaconship, far enough to judge of its wisdom and 
fidelity in the way of review without abating its au- 
tonomy, must, of course, attain much of the same furni- 
ture in facts and information. All this, added to the 
other business of jurisdiction and similar engagements 
in the world to provide things honest in the sight of 
all men, must be to him an overcharge which is incom- 
patible with attention to the details of collection and of 
distribution. 

4. Even if the two could be compounded without 
perverting or abating either, it would be inexpedient 
for the welfare of the church to dispense witli practical 
distinction. As long as she has both old and young in 
her membership she must have over them both the offices 
which crystallize these adjectives in technical names. 
And it is highly expedient on other accounts to have 
many of the members of the church in office : it ani- 



374 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

mates, invigorates and guards the incnmbents them- 
selves. The affairs of the church are more their own 
personal business. Her interests are more an active 
concernment. They prize more the privilege of all 
her ordinances and pray more for her prosperity and 
ascertain more accurately the need and measure and 
force of all her institutions. When the number of male 
members cannot afford a bench of ruling elders and a 
board of deacons both, the former must have the pre- 
cedence in organization, as the older precedes the younger 
in authority ; but in such cases the pastor, and not the 
bench of elders, should perform a deacon's duty. The 
apostles themselves handled it in the first exigence until 
the accession of membership in a multitude would fur- 
nish the right men for deacons and the superintendence 
of them with new inspiration. And in this alternative 
there would be less confusion of office and less hazard 
of a permanent omission, because the people would be 
sooner prompted to relieve the pastor of excessive toil 
and distracting care. Of course it is not meant here 
that offices should be multiplied at the pleasure of the 
church as an expedient for exercising the variety of gifts 
which men may fancy valuable in promoting her welfare. 
God only makes the offices and endows the functionaries 
with proper gifts, and he has made only two in the 
record of his will named and greeted by the apostle 
Paul in Phil. i. 1 — "bishops and deacons.'^ 

5. If we are not authorized to make offices on the 
score of expediency in our own judgment, much less are 
we justified in transferring the functions of any sacred 
office to a civil office because the latter is one peculiar 
to Christian civilization — such as ovei*seers of the poor, 
whom Christians are taxed to support, and are too often 



THE DEACONS. 375 

siibstitiitlug for church deacons in the stress of consciences 
that are concerned only somewhat for the distribution of 
alms. A Christian people should be specially cautioned 
against falling into such a snare. It is not benevolence ; 
it is not obedience; it is not spiritual either in motive or 
outcome. 

(1) Overseers of the poor in a civil community cannot 
perform the duties of a Christian deacon. The most de- 
serving penury is hardly ever benefited by the State, 
because it shrinks instinctively from making known its 
misery. There is often a reduction to poverty of those 
who were once in ease and affluence, and, coming down 
to want with all their intelligence and sensibilities made 
morbid by the change, they would rather die than be 
gazed at in the ranks of public pauperism. There is also 
the independence of lowly and honest thrift, which would 
endure any privation or pinching of w^ant rather than feel 
the obligations of relief without being able to repay it. 
There must be, therefore, a special order of spiritual 
officers who are fitted for a task so delicate in distribu- 
tion, whose intercourse within the church will enable 
them to find out the need which is never obtrusive and 
to hear the whispers of that fainting penury whicli will 
not clamor — men of heart and tender sensibility whom 
the grace and compassion of Jesus, combining with their 
native and sanctified endowments, qualify for this work 
of temporal mercy. 

(2) Even if our civil guardians of the poor were com- 
petent, they ought not to undertake a work so spiritual 
in its nature. Alms of the State are not religious; the 
relief and support of the poor is matter of policy alone. 
Utilitarian only in the prevention of crime, the relief of 
private habitations from beggary at the doors, the sani- 



376 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

tary precaution against disease which neglected poverty 
might occasion, — all these qualities of civil distribution 
to want, however laudable, are but carnal in comparison 
with the charity that is born of God in his kingdom of 
grace. Where taxes begin charity ceases. Were Chris- 
tians contented with the care bestowed by secular asylums, 
they would soon part with the life and power of this 
greatest of graces and cease to feel that it is indeed a 
grace of the Spirit and a distinguished glory of the 
gospel; and, being parted from this its life-spring, it 
would die, and enlightened policy itself would event- 
ually cease to bless the community with liberal or effect- 
ive provisions for the poor. 

(3) The Church is a debtor to the State in the obliga- 
tion she acknowledges to cherish her own poor in her 
own way. It is in the charter she has from her Founder : 
*' The poor ye have with you always." It is her ancient 
characteristic, her claim, her boast, even in the times and 
places of her utmost degeneracy. And the State, there- 
fore, has equitable reason to construe an assumpsit on her 
part in the hands of her deacons. Moral obliquity, if not 
legal also, deforms her wherever this duty is neglected or 
ignored. She is a family bound together by the nearest 
and dearest of ties. Her sympathies within are likened 
to a fellow-feeling within us among the members of the 
same body. If it would be reckoned justly a disgrace 
for any private family to surrender an inmate to the 
poorhouse while there is a possibility of maintaining 
him at home, how much more dishonest must it be for 
this chosen and peculiar family to separate any poor 
member to the heartless charity of a civil establishment 
while there is any ability or any deacon to direct it by 
his watchful sensibilities and appointed ministry for 



THE DEACONS. 377 

the support of poverty found within the gates of our 
sanctuary ! 

Orphanage as well as poverty is a spiritual charge to 
the ministrations of a deacon. Sponsorial in the family 
covenant itself, he may stand for the child that is left 
without a parent in the administration of baptism, and 
with Abrahamic faith may vouch for its nursing and 
education. The oversight ensuing allies him closely to 
the elders, both teaching and ruling, in the exercise 
of his peculiar functions. Yet in all these duties of a 
spiritual nature he is subject rightly to the control of 
an eldership, and only in the distribution of alms and 
goods to the poor is he self-controlled and exclusive in 
authority, bound only to hear the advice of elders. The 
progress of benevolence in these last times would en- 
large the spiritual sphere of a deacon's work, fain to 
add analogies to the literal narrowness of his functions 
in Presbytery, such as money collected and given wher- 
ever the gospel is preached to the poor; money sent out- 
side of the Church to prepare the way for other direct 
ministrations on her errand; money for the spiritual 
instruction as well as support of widows and orphans. 
How many ministers of the word who toil among the 
rich as well as among the poor churches, for a pittance 
of present recompense, would feel their penury but little 
inconvenience if they knew well that the care of their 
families in widowhood and orphanage would be regarded 
by surviving ministers of another order among the 
same people as a sacred task dear as supporting the 
gospel itself? Because the Middle Ages went too far 
in putting the deacon to everything, the modern ages 
should not err in the constriction of an opposite ex- 
treme. There is room and there is need for expansion. 



378 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

The Deaconess. 

The Christian diaconate of which we have spoken 
has already virtually attained the expansion to which it 
is entitled in the great activity and service of Chris- 
tian woman beyond the distribution of alms at home 
and beyond the frontier of Christian civilization and 
beyond the setting sun, till the whole earth is girdled 
with her beneficence in missions of the Church. We 
should now give her a normal recognition and an official 
place in our system. God has given her the name of 
" deacon '' — which in the original is both male and 
female — and the world is witnessing how well she de- 
serves it. True, it is not authority she seeks in doing 
good, and a formal investiture with office may even be 
shunned by the delicacy of her nature ; but power in 
the Church should always be defined in a formal con- 
stitution, especially when it grows and waxes exceed- 
ingly and earns in its progress the suffrage and the 
plaudit of the people. 

No chapter in the Bible touches the deacon's office 
with that breadth and beauty which the oversight of " the 
seven" imparted so much as the sixteenth of Romans. 
Ver. 1 : '' I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, which 
is a servant (deaconess) of the church which is at Cen- 
chrea ;" ver. 3 : '' Greet Priscilla and Aquila my help- 
ers in Christ Jesus ;'' ver. 6 : " Greet Mary, who be- 
stowed much labor on us;" ver. 12: '^ Salute Tryphena 
and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord." The cluster 
of salutations here at the end of this grand Epistle so 
replete with climax and the marrow of gospel truth and 
century-plants of logic is the flower that surmounts it, 
and the letter is said to have been carried from Corinth 



THE DEACONS. 379 

to Rome by the first-named deaconess herself. The 
errand of Phoebe to Rome was evidently official. Yer. 2 : 
" That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, 
and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath 
need of you ; for she hath been a succorer of many and 
of myself also.'' " For " in this latter clause interprets 
the '^ business " which took her to Rome — the continu- 
ance of that official beneficence which Paul and many 
others had shared ; so, also, does the mention of a par- 
ticular church, " Cenchrea," of which she was a " serv- 
ant," indicating that her special business at Rome must 
have been the interest of that church — probably in the 
way of collecting funds where opulent Christians were 
to be found and the treasures of the world were so 
much accumulated. On any other business, of a per- 
sonal or a social nature, she would have been com- 
mended as a " servant of the Lord " in the usual form 
of Christian commendation. 

The next verse brings to view a similar office and 
order at Rome itself: "Greet Priscilla and Aquila my 
helpers in Christ Jesus." Helpers have an official name 
in the catalogue of gifts to the primitive Church (1 Cor. 
xii. 28 : d^vriXifjipzic. — " helps ") ; and when we recall the 
fact that the original seven set over the diaconate were 
evidently gifted with the charisms of apostolic time, 
though attached to a ministry of permanent order for 
an occasion as auxiliary to the apostolic service, we 
may well believe that the term "helpers" among godly 
women was official as well as appellative in signification. 
And here we have another evidence of enlargement and 
elevation for the order of deacon and deaconess. Be- 
sides the five particular forms of ministration derived 
from the old economy and assigned by the early Fathers 



380 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

to the deaconess of the new — care of the poor, the sick, 
the stranger, the widow and the orphan — they were 
helpers of apostles, whose mission was extensive as the 
globe ; they were sisters of mercy to the martyrs whom 
no male deacon could reach without the peril of life ; 
they were like both the confessor Philip and the martyr 
Stephen in that kind of signal service which all history 
commemorates. Pliny wrote to Trajan at the begin- 
ning of the second century that he had subjected women 
to the torture in persecution that he might extort con- 
fession: ^'Ex duabus ancillis quae ministrse dicebantur." 
Evidently one of these nouns, ancillaj is the common 
designation of handmaid, and the other, ministra, the 
official name of a female servant. And this term trans- 
lates the Greek didxouo^ in patristic Latin. 

It is hard to compress within proper limits the con- 
currence of our best commentators, Lutheran and Cal- 
vinistic, on this point — the official sense given to the 
service of Phoebe. Calvin says : " He commends to 
them Phoebe, to whom he gave this epistle to be brought 
to them ; and in the first place he commends her on 
account of her office, for she performed a most honor- 
able and a most holy function in the church. . . . As, 
then, she was a deaconess — minisfra — of the Cenchrean 
church, he bids that on that account she should be re- 
ceived in the Lord ; we ought surely to regard and 
especially to love and honor those who perform a public 
office in the Church.'^ From John Calvin to Charles 
Hodge, inclusively, we have a singular succession of 
learned and illustrious men affirming the official mean- 
ing of " deaconess ^' in its application to Phoebe. Some 
of these are Beza, Van Miistricht, MacKnight, Bing- 
ham, Suicer, Schleusuer, Parkhurst, Kitto, Brown, and 



THE DEACONS. 381 

last — not least, by any means — Thomas Glial mers of 
Scotland : " Here too we are presented with another 
most useful indication — the employment of female 
agency, under the eye and with the sanction of an 

' apostle, in the business of a church. It is well to have 
inspired authority for a practice too little known and 
too little proceeded on in modern times. Phoebe be- 

' longed to the order of deaconesses, in which capacity 
she had been the helper of many, including Paul him- 
self. Like the \vomen in the Gospels who waited on 
our Saviour, she may have ministered to them of her 
substance, though there can be little doubt that, as the 
holder of an official station in the church, she ministered 
to them of her service also.^' 

The word of God, however, does not give a name 
to any office or officer without also giving the character 
of qualifications required for the exercise of its func- 
tions. He not only inspires the word, male and female 
— dtdxovo(: — but he plainly signifies what the woman as 
well as the man must be to magnify the office. So we 
read in 1 Tim. iii. 11 : "Even so must their wives be 
grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things." 
Here, however, the Authorized Version is at fault, and 
the recent Revision is decidedly better : '^ Women in 
like manner must be grave, not slanderers, temperate, 
faithful in all things." This follows the Vulgate, muli- 
eres similiter, tind is nearer to the original ; for, though 
yoi^aixa(; may mean "wives,'' its general meaning is 
women as antithetical to men, whether married or un- 
married. And the connection here is obviously women 
of the diaconate rather than of the house, with husband 
and children, domestic proprieties mentioned in the next 
verse being expressly assigned to the male deacon. 



382 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

Doubtless the wives of deacons were often in the same 
office, but in this passage *' their " does not belong to 
the sense and is not in the original. It is only female 
deacons as a distinct variety in the office, enumerated 
here for the purpose of showing their distinctly similar 
and proper characteristics. 

An official name being ascertained, and a list of proper 
qualifications and becoming character being also distinctly 
revealed, the next question to be settled is the separate 
organization of deaconesses in the regular scheme of 
church offices. An eleemosynary institute of some kind, 
with its roll of members, conditions of admission, rules 
of ■ order, duties prescribed, privileges forfeited, etc., 
would seem to be the natural formation of such a guild ; 
and any degree of intimation or color of fact in sacred 
history which makes complete the postulates of office 
already noticed should settle the claim w^e make for 
womau^s office and give it place and habitation. If we 
had no name for office which is both male and female 
in the original, and if we had no corresponding functions 
of an official nature described in Scripture, and no list 
of qualifications detailed, and no crowd of consecrated 
women eulogized by the great apostle for their functional 
aid in his labor and succor in his misery, then indeed the 
probability would be against our plea when we allege 
against Neander an institution of deaconesses rather 
than a poorhouse for widows in the concise directions 
of 1 Tim. v. 3-16. 

The averment that Phoebe was a deaconess approved 
and commended by the apostle Paul, and the greeting 
sent to others in other places for busy and faithful 
occupation in the same way, may obviously dispense 
with a formal account of the institution, either as 



THE DEACONS. 383 

derived from the old economy or as constructed agiila 
under the new. This female deaconship, being supple- 
mentary in its nature, needs no more than allusion or 
indirect mention to signify its corporate existence. Such 
implication is found in the passage cited above. Begin- 
ning with the subject of " widows," always cherished by 
the Church under both dispensations, the apostle writes 
(ver. 3), " Honor widows that are widows indeed." The 
proper attention to these and the equitable supply of their 
need were the occasion, we have seen (Acts vi.), of re- 
habilitating a deaconship at the beginning of the gospel, 
when the seven were " appointed over this business " 
and selected with solemnity of procedure from the 
ministry of gifts then at work with the apostles. And, 
as these were subsequently identified with deacons them- 
selves because of the trust in direction of that order, so 
the female deacons were afterward identified with widows 
because of the original and special trust confided to this 
order, according to the- Scriptures. This apparent con- 
fusion of widows dependent with widows superintend- 
ing them — the governed with the^governesses themselves 
— must be discerned with close attention, or this remark- 
able text (1 Tim. v. 3) will be inexplicable. 

All New-Testament offices are free from prescription 
of age as it was made in the temple-service of old — not 
in the synagogue, after which our ecclesia has been 
modelled. AVhen we read, therefore, ^' Let not a widow 
be taken into the number under threescore years old," 
we interpret fairly that maturity of mind and the ten- 
derness of pity and ripeness of piety becoming the office 
of a deaconess henceforth are required by this typical 
form in the literal threescore prescribed at the origin of 
a female diaconate. Certainly, this expression cannot be 



384 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

taken as a limitation to the number of beneficiaries ad- 
mitted to the charities of a public asylum. Even the 
civic provision for the poor would nev^er so hamper 
applications for admittance, and we cannot for a moment 
suppose that Christian benevolence, aglow even in its 
cradle, would devise a restriction so exclusive and un- 
reasonable ; for the childless widow and the young 
widow with children in their childhood, too young to 
provide for her, must be regarded in every age as ordi- 
narily the most needy and dependent of widows. In 
this very connection the apostle says : " If any widow 
have children or nephews let them learn first to shew 
piety (kindness) at home, and to requite their parents." 
If, therefore, the widow, at any age, who has neither 
child nor nephew to provide for her at a home of her 
own makes application to the home provided by the 
Church for the poor, she must not be refused because 
she is less than ^' threescore years old.'' " Taken into 
the number,'' then, must mean some other kind of 
number than the inmates of charitable subsistence at a 
home supported by the alms of the Church. 

The word xaraleyeadco^ used only here and translated 
"taken into the number," means in classical use enrol- 
ment of the most particular kind, picking out from a 
general register, civil or military, a few in detail for 
special duty — the sense given to this word by Erasmus, 
Beza and many others. The detail here enjoined cannot, 
on the principles of common charity and common sense, 
refer to the widows received for support in their destitu- 
tion, but to those who administer and superintend the 
support afforded ; and if those admitted into the cata- 
logue of overseers and managers be widows at all, they 
must be persons of experience threescore years old, 



THE DEACONS. 385 

whose qualifications for such a ministry must have been 
well tested : '' Well reported of for good works ; if she 
have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, 
if she have washed the saints' feet, if she have relieved 
the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good 
work.'' In short, such a person could not herself be a 
dependent pauper ; if she were, the '' brought-up chil- 
dren '^ would be required, according to the context of 
this quotation, to support her in private homes. But the 
whole description of her character is that of a benefac- 
tress who had enjoyed leisure and means for doing good 
to others in hospitality and condescending kindness to 
the saints and the relief of affliction, and all this done 
" diligently," as if she had been already given wholly 
to the dispensing of charity. 

Precisely such a widow, desiring, withal, to enter the 
official list of deaconesses, could not be found— one among 
a thousand — in any generation ; and even if she could be, 
she would be too old to last long in the work of distribu- 
tion. " Murmuring " would soon be heard again through 
all i\\e^ wards of an asylum that " widows were neglected 
in the daily ministration," and the aged overseers them- 
selves — exceedingly few in number, and inadequate, 
with the best of health, to manage and supply the 
crowd of needy ones within — must have the list en- 
larged and the activities of younger age enrolled to 
attend the weakness of old age in the oversight as well 
as in a throng of poverty admitted to the institution. 
Hence the necessity of a figurative sense to the require- 
ment of sixty years in age for a fellowship of care "over 
this business." With the exception of Tertullian, all 
the early Fathers who adverted to the subject of this 
office agreed in divesting of its literalism the original 

2.> 



386 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

injunction, fairly construing it to signify sound judg- 
ment, thoughtful concern, prudence and practical wis- 
dom, as well as tried fidelity in qualifying for the office 
of deaconess. This liberal interpretation greatly in- 
creased the diaconate of women, and obtained currency, 
perhaps, even before the demise of Paul himself; for 
early in the second century Ignatius wrote to his 
church at Antioch, ^'Salute the deaconesses in Christ 
Jesus." The home for destitute widows had now be- 
come but one department of their helpfulness. The 
centralization with which their work had begun was 
broken up and diffused, and their functicm, like "the 
alabaster box of very precious ointment,'' followed the 
gospel in the spread thereof: ^'Wheresoever this gospel 
shall be preached in the whole Avorld, there shall also 
this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial 
of her.'' Thus it is that Jesus embalms the good work 
of woman. 

Let us beware of the grudging " indignation " with 
which his disciples said, " To what purpose is this 
waste? For this ointment might have been sold for 
much and given to the poor." Is there now no me- 
morial of benefaction to the poor in the distinctive 
work of woman, inasmuch as if she does it to the 
least of these she does it to the Saviour himself? 
Should not the great apostle of the Gentiles be credited 
with similar dedication in the monumental pattern he 
has drawn of the good women's office at the widows' 
home? The compact abruptness of his style in making 
transitions and leaving us to make distinctions where he 
has dropped his massive thought and given his compre- 
hensive directions must not be made a jumble in our 
haste to simplify conclusions. AVe have in the text now 



THE DEACONS. 387 

before us a very composite account of eleemosynary 
foundations at the first in primitive Christianity, and 
we have attempted to unravel a thread of qualification 
for the oversight by such functionaries as have (charge 
of the female poor ; but we are just here confronted 
with an array of modern literature which would relegate 
to chaos the effort of explanation and insist that the 
whole context -intends to signify only the widows who 
are to be supported by the public charity of the Church. 
Even the richest and the best, the well-to-do and the 
most helpless of widows are alike to be supported when 
they have no kinsfolk to support them witli private 
benevolence. Yet we are told in that word which is 
translated by the phrase "taken into the number'^ that 
there must be a careful picking and choosing of this 
number, which is proper in the choice of officers to 
superintend the charity, but simply absurd in the nature 
of charity as to the objects of relief and support, and 
entirely inconsistent with a wholesale consignment to 
the almshouse of the persons described in the passage. 
The literal limitation described in the ninth and tenth 
verses would confine the choice of deaconesses to a very 
few persons fitted for the ministration ; but if it be 
applied to the indigent themselves received and sup- 
ported, there would be nullification of the whole scheme 
and design of a charitable provision. The entire de- 
scription of the widow entitled to " be taken into the 
number ^' selects the directrix alone, and excludes from 
this number the directed and the fit beneficiaries. 

Besides, the exclusion mentioned in the eleventh verse 
— " the younger widows refuse ^^ — aggravates the void- 
ance with a cruel disparagement of the lone childless 
widow who has had no experience, nor means for doing 



388 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

good to others, nor opportunities for hospitality, nor 
near of kin to depend on, and all the more needing to 
be admitted, instructed and guided, as well as fed and 
clothed, by the common charities of the faithful. The 
reason for such a refusal — because "they Mill marry" 
and "have damnation, because they have cast off their 
first faith '' — is a dire indignity and an absurd injustice 
also if we are to understand the refusal to mean as a 
beneficiary seeking support in the almshouse ; for the 
probability of her being married again would only sug- 
gest a speedy relief to the funds provided for the sup- 
port of a destitute community. Still more atrocious in 
such a case are the words " having damnation" — that is, 
"condemnation" — "because they have cast off their 
first faith." In the same connection we read, " I will, 
therefore, that the younger women marry." He cannot 
mean that he wills their " damnation " in being married 
again or violating any faith in having been entered as 
paupers. Everything in such language of the apostle 
is explicable only on the hypothesis of an instituted 
order being the main drift of these verses, into which 
the younger widow could not be admitted then lest 
another marriage would interrupt her usefulness in 
office and bring condemnation on herself and the order 
also for mutability in vows and dereliction of engage- 
ment on which the giving of charity had relied. 

Thus we have an official name, official qualifications 
and official devotement fairly given by Holy Scripture 
for the office of deaconess in the Church wherever and 
whenever God gives the gift on which it is founded. It is 
for us to interpret the gift when it comes, and the rule 
of this interpretation is furnished by God^s own word. 
The ministry of gifts was called to touch the old di- 



THE DEACONS, 389 

aconate with new life and elevation at a miraculous time 
in the clays of Philip and Stephen. The greater part 
of the elevation then bestowed consisted, manifestly, in 
the endowment of sainted women. Last at the cross 
and first at the tomb of our exalted Saviour, he did not 
forget to exalt them also in the redemption when he 
sent the Comforter, as he had promised — the Holy 
Ghost, in the plenitude of gifts and graces — on all that 
waited : "And on my servants and on my handmaidens, 
I will pour out in those days of my Spirit ; and they 
shall prophesy .^^ 

" Those days ^' are commensurate with the ministra- 
tion of the Spirit, and this continues until this day. 
We may not now see " Avonders in heaven above, and 
signs in the earth beneath,'^ for we do not need to see 
them, but we see culture by the Spirit, which was only 
anticipated by the marvels of Pentecost as preternatural 
signs of what is coming in progress of time and always 
followed by the realization that abides. Gifts for Phoebe's 
"business" and for Priscilla's "helping '' and for Tryphe- 
na's " labor" still remain, and these are now as much the 
fruit of the Spirit as they were when Stephen died. 
The Spirit who " dwelleth in us and shall be with us " 
delights in the culture which revives them and con- 
tinues them, for this culture is his own and will endure 
in the Church in proportion to the slowness of their 
growth and development. 

But here we may be challenged for an explanation of 
their disappearance in the visible Church within the 
first thousand years of their existence. We may briefly 
answer. Because the glory had departed and the culture 
of woman was reversed by apostasy in the Church itself. 
Pure Christianity alone elevates woman and endows her 



390 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

with adequate gifts for office in the Church, and the 
slightest alloy of superstition contracts the sensibilities 
of her nature. Charity is broad, and superstition is 
narrow. 

(1) The first cause of decay and discontinuance, there- 
fore, in the female diaconate was the abatement of her 
own qualifications by reason of spiritual decline. With 
the return of Jewish pasch and mixture of pagan rites 
and holidays in the second century, when Christian 
ministers affected the sacerdotal shadows of old and 
the name of " priest,'^ the bondage of woman returned, 
her charities lost their freedom, and of course their 
breadth, variety and abundance — not all at once, indeed, 
but perceptibly begun to the eye of close attention in 
Church history. Ritualistic slavery began to chain the 
hands of woman and superstitious fear to palsy her 
benevolence and love. Let the student compare the 
vivid portraiture of pious women throughout the New 
Testament, from the birth of Jesus to the end of Ro- 
mans, with the authentic annals of history from the 
middle of the second century to that of the third, and 
see how the gold became dim and the most fine gold 
was changed. Her beautiful charity was shrivelled, 
and councils were beginning to advise the discontinu- 
ance of her office. 

(2) The invasion of monachism and virginity was 
another evil which largely accounts for the decline of 
church ^'business'' in the hands of women. When we 
consider the model of a deaconess, furnished at first by 
the Spirit of inspiration (1 Tim. v. 10), and observe 
that she was a widow who had brought up children, 
etc., we can see how baleful and subversive to her office 
must have been the fanatical rage of anchoretic life, in 



THE DEACONS. 391 

which marriage was avoided and despised as a lower 
sanctity, if sanctity at all of any degree. The widow 
might be still a beneficiary, as the vilest wretch might 
be, but the notion of an office in the Church for any 
one that ever had been a wife must be exploded. The 
succession of widows with such contaminating antece- 
dents, or of maidens who vowed never to be married, 
and of course never to gain the experience which the 
office required at the first institution, would be a de- 
parture from the original far enough to make it soon an 
obsolete office entirely. 

(3) Another cause of abolition was the exaltation of 
male deacons to a position which female deacons could 
never attain — that of preachers. In the conflict of the 
bishop with his ruling elders that eventuated in the sup- 
pression of the latter deacons were the great instrumen- 
tality employed by the former. The diaconate of any 
degree would never indeed be reckoned sacerdotal, but 
all the elders might be, as well as the bishops, for they 
were confessedly the same rank in Scripture ; and the 
elders had made the bishops, by their own designation, 
at the beginning. The parochial chief, as we have 
noticed in another connection, would always find the 
suffragans an obstruction to his ambition, and as soon 
as he felt himself to be a priest with sacerdotal aspira- 
tions he wished to go higher than a parish, and he could 
not have the sturdy elders with him as a hierarch. The 
diocesan must, therefore, have his servants to be " his 
eye, his ear, his hand'' and the medium of all com- 
munication with his people. Of course rulers would 
not be such, and the traditional servants of the Church 
must now become his own peculiar " helps f and the 
consequence was a liberal recompense which soon made 



392 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

them the richest order of the Church, and personally- 
advanced them in function to any degree short of priest- 
hood, and to any privilege in ministering the word short 
of dispensing both of the sacraments. 

Precisely here it was that the deaconess became for- 
saken and helpless in the diaconate ; for the same pastoral 
letter that contains the charter of her office prohibits ex- 
pressly her privilege to preach or to teach publicly in the 
church. The virgin purity of her deaconship must there- 
fore become a protest against the deflection of men in the 
office and against the ambitions of priests and prelates to 
rise, and raise the servants over the rulers to be their own 
factitious adjutants in the race of aggrandizement. Elders 
who had been rulers only, either would catch the same 
contagion to covet better gifts and come to sacerdotal 
honors, or would quit in disgust a station which was 
now trodden under foot by servants in livery. So they 
vanished, but the deaconesses had too much hold on the 
heart of the Church to be easily dislodged and abated. 
It required many councils composed of bishops, priests 
and deacons to rid themselves of woman's record and 
reproach against them. Rancor and ridicule, combined 
with the stigma of clerical condemnation from one gen- 
eration to another, scarcely destroyed this office in eleven 
centuries. At the ultimate obliteration, however, all was 
dead or dying of this true apostolic institution. It was 
the darkest hour just before the dawn of day in the re- 
vival of letters. 

If the great Reformation had been half as much con- 
cerned for the reconstruction of a primitive visibility as 
for the definition of doctrines, it would not have failed 
quickly to restore the deaconship to the plane on which it 
was placed and left by '' the seven " gifted men to whom 



THE DEACONS. 393 

it was eDtrnsted by tlie first disciples. There it was 
made male and female, catholic as the new dispensation 
it served ; apostolic inspiration promptly recognized and 
enrolled the office of woman. But the Reformers were 
behind the ao-e in beino^ contented to leave the servitors 
of the synagogue as they had been till the Grecians com- 
plained of their widows being neglected in the daily min- 
istration. Yet the new life, ^' powei-s of the world to 
come," rekindled in the Reformation needs no " seven " 
" over this business " to reconstruct the office and to re- 
store the women whom the apostles once for all desig- 
nated and commended for official adaptation. Their 
claim is strong enough to be self-asserted and they are 
a law to themselves, instinct and inspirited with all the 
analogies of that gospel which has made them anew. It 
is no usurpation of office, but the redemption of office, 
for them to organize a corporate existence of their own 
which will require the normal authority of the Church 
to follow if it fail to lead. Already its male deaconship 
is comparatively idle, being superseded by the voluntary- 
ism of woman. 

Idleness of the deacons, either male or female, at such 
a time as this, when we are confronted in the world with 
the gravest problems of modern civilization — the man- 
agement of work and money for the good of men and 
the glory of God — will put to hazard the triumphs of 
the gospel itself. These problems baffle the wisdom of 
men all the world over, and the confusion of tongues 
through every department of human power, legislative, 
judicial and executive, only alarms us with dark un- 
certainty for the result. Against the equities of capital 
organizations are everywhere contrived by the poor to 
elevate labor and paralyze the wealth which employs it, 



394 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

with even the prostration of industries unless the work- 
ingman succeeds to tlie wliole extent of his unreasonable 
demands. On the other hand, riches are petrified and 
stand aloof from the sufferings of poverty occasioned by 
its own default. It is not in human nature to relieve 
the poor and encourage their industry when they are in 
arms of hostility against the enterprise which feeds them. 
Passions mutually inflamed thus by mutual misunder- 
standing cannot be allayed by the intervention or arbi- 
tration of men with maxims of uninspired wisdom. 

"Never man spake like this Man'' who said, "All 
things whatsoever ye would that men should do to 
you, do ye even so to them : for this is the law and 
the prophets.'' This Golden Rule is given to the 
Church by her Head, and the hands in which the 
Church has put it with authorized application are the 
deacons, her financial ministers, her guardians of the 
poor, her committee of contact with secular interests 
and secular needs. Mutual claim and mutual conces- 
sion, the sum of this rule, require a mutual conscience 
which only the religion of Christ will quicken and cul- 
tivate. When systems of human government crumble 
to ruin and become dissolved into first principles, they 
start to better life again only in the cradle which Chris- 
tianity rocks with her conservatism. So in governments 
which stand by her help the social and economical dis- 
asters which occur so often will be remedied only by her 
application of the Golden Rule ; and, as this requires 
tact more than teaching, so that ministry of religion 
which is accustomed to handle temporal, things will 
become a chief instrumentality for controlling civil dis- 
orders. This moral side of "distribution" is mighty. 

Now, the natural supremacy in tact confessedly be- 



THE DEACONS. 395 

longs to woman ; and when the grace of the Spirit and 
the gift of office combine with her touch to relieve the 
wretched at home and to send the gospel abroad, we have 
at once the best efficiency and the fairest adornment of 
Christian benevolence. Why, then, should the visible 
Church refuse or delay to restore the deaconess in eccle- 
siastical form to her own organization ? Should we leave 
the corporate power of her combinations to wander about 
in exterior transactions and eccentric orbits, like the union 
of trades and the adventures of knights and the fitful 
conclaves of anarchy and communism, and that, too, 
when the male diaconate is at ease in Zion, having little 
or nothing to do in the recognized duties of this primitive 
order ? The fact, familiar now, that the deacon's work is 
done so much by women is a sufficient answer to that 
plausible objection to the revival and continuance of a 
female diaconate which has prevailed so long on the 
surface of thought in the Church — that her office be- 
longed to the ancient jealousy of sexes in the East, 
which forbade the social freedom of intercourse that 
now and here obtains. The assumption is not sup- 
ported by authentic history ; and if it were, the change 
in Western civilization, which freely mingles the sexes 
together in the circles of religious and refined society, 
only makes it the more expedient that sexes should be 
visibly combined in working under that official name 
which in Scripture is both male and female, recon- 
structed because "widows were neglected in the daily 
ministration. '^ 

A normal unison like this would, of course, mean a com- 
mon subordination to the authority of elders, which in 
our system governs the diaconate as well as the member- 
ship in the way of direction, review and control. Only 



396 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

the distribution of alms to the poor is the original and 
indefeasible discretion of deacons, which the elders may 
advise merely, without subjecting to their authority, 
original or appellate, the actual charities of this nature 
dispensed by deacons. This measure of independence 
will ever be sufficient to sustain the dignity of an office 
born of servitude anciently, and in the fulness of time 
emancipated and promoted as the right arm of benevo- 
lence in the Christian Church. The apostolic latitude 
and completeness conferred on this order by a ministry 
of gifts must ever abide the latitude of both sexes and 
the completeness of distribution for a whole world. 
There should be, therefore and accordingly, an organ- 
ized unity, recognized and controlled by the Church in 
her judicatories, which would expunge from her present 
constitution but one word, ^' male," in the membership 
from which deacons are chosen — that masculine objection 
which hinders thousands of Presbyterians now from elect- 
ing women as well as men to that very office which other- 
wise women will carry for themselves, outside of the 
Church proper, to do proper Church work. 

We contemplate the same necessity in all the cate- 
gories of duty that can be assigned to a Christian 
diaconate ; not one of them can be performed completely 
without w^oman associated in the exercise of functions. 
Ever since the "young men" carried out for burial 
the dead bodies of Ananias and Sapphira duties of 
which males only were capable have been detached 
from this office and assigned to sextons, acolytes or 
subdeacons, as was most expedient for any particular 
church. It is only the sublime functions consecrated 
by the Saviour's lips, the apostles' commands and the 
directions of Philip and Stephen that remain through 



THE DEACONS. 397 

all time to be ministered by scriptural deacons ; and in 
every one of these, to be well done, there must be female 
associates in the office. Any comprehensive detail may 
suffice to indicate this. 

(1) One of these duties — and the most ancient, in- 
deed, which descends from the Old-Testament ecclesia — 
is to keep order in the sanctuary during the-solemnities 
of worship and instruction. Thus, at Nazareth and the 
beginning of our Lord's own ministry in the synagogues 
of Galilee, the ^'minister'' — a deacon under the name of 
a synonym — " delivered unto him the book " when he 
*' stood up for to read ;" and when he himself had read, 
" he closed the book and gave it again to the minister, 
and sat down.'' The figure of this one fact, a part for 
the whole, indicates a class of duties within the house 
of God which must be ministered by women as well as 
by men in dealing with both sexes of the congregation^ 
The proprieties of reverence and godly fear to be ob- 
served and enforced according to the Westminster Di- 
rectory, as well as ancient "constitutions," are to be 
prompted still: "Forbearing to read anything, except 
what the minister is then reading and citing; abstain- 
ing from all whisperings, from salutations of persons 
present or coming in ; and from gazing about, sleeping, 
smiling, and all other indecent behavior." In all civil- 
ized places these improprieties cannot be prevented and 
dare not be reproved by men only, whether deacons, 
elders or preachers, without women of influence, whether 
in office or not, pervading the assembly with faithful ob- 
servation and gentle dissuasion. In performing officially 
this important function at the assemblies of God's peo})le 
deaconesses originally, it is said, distributed the whole 
congregation, obliging males to sit on one side and 



398 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

females on the other, that the double diaconate might 
the better keep good order in public worship. 

(2) Watching and visitation outside of the sanctuary 
is another important class of duties, which require both 
the deacon and the deaconess to perform them adequately 
at all. Elders are to be vigilant in exercising discipline 
upon the wayward and the offending ; but the deacons 
also are to inspect the conduct in tempoml things, and 
to report the delinquencies and misdemeanors which 
trouble the flock and discredit the gospel in its contact 
with the world. They are thus to be the eye and the 
ear of the bishop, as they were anciently regarded — the 
messengers and committee of vigilance for pastor and 
elders. But men alone can do this to a very partial 
extent. They cannot explore the realm of gossip or 
the intricacies of scandal or the delicacy of crises where 
offences are to be prevented ; and it is honorable to wo- 
man that without contamination she may pass through 
observations and discoveries of evil which men could 
never make, and therefore she is an indispensable wit- 
ness for the guidance of judicial administration. When 
her office was discontinued in the Catholic Church, dis- 
cipline was ruined. The secrets of the confessional and 
the sale of indulgences followed the suppression of dea- 
conesses with logical sequence. On the other hand, the 
deaconess may be as the eye and the ear to ever}- paro- 
chial bishop in giving him notice of sickness and dis- 
tress among the people of which otherwise he could not 
know to come in time with the consolations which his 
office administers; and many a family has been alienated 
from the pastor by his tardiness in coming, which would 
have been prevented by the watchfulness of a faithful 
deaconess. 



THE DEACONS. 



399 



(3) Another class of duties are those of hospitahty, 
and here woman is indispensably an officer '' following 
every good work." Deacons may gather in the strangers, 
but without a deaconess to entertain them, to " lodge 
strangers" and "wash the saints' feet," and "diligently" 
to perform the true rites of hospitality, but few guests 
will turn out to be " angels unawares." In this category 
of diaconate service there is increasing need of Christian 
hostelry, appointed places of accommodation where the 
benevolence of the Church to strangers has an open 
house for all occasions, social freedom and sure supply 
for any varieties of need among the strangers. Private 
entertainment in families must be always a precarious 
good on account of inconvenience or inability— possi- 
bilities which diminish more and more the spontaneous 
hospitality of our fathers in proportion to the facilities 
of travel,' the frequency of conventional occasions and 
the exactions of ceremony in modern life. Probably 
the hospitable heart of piety has abated also in conse- 
quence of the manifold surfaces of social intercourse in 
contrast with the simplicity of ancient life, and with the 
cradle of our own life in a generation before us. But 
all these causes of change and abatement in the spirit 
of charity must be countervailed by functions of office 
in charity which will make it more than ever a "busi- 
ness" in the hands of Phoebes. Whatsis lessened in 
the fountain may be increased by the tribute of streams 
below it with skilled labor in directing them; and wis- 
dom in such benefaction calls for the deaconess. 

(4) The diaconate is not a domestic service in the 
Church only : it is also foreign missionary and ubiqui- 
tous. The name alone of " deacon "—meaning urgency 
of service— signifies to be in haste and away, serving a 



400 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

ransomed Church by the spread of this offered ransom to 
the ends of the earth. Expansiveness is another charac- 
teristic bestowed upon the office, when a ministry of gifts 
at the birth of missions took hold of it with supervision. 
"The Dispersion '' of Grecian Jews doubtless went home 
throughout Asia to publish the piety and the philan- 
thropy of that renovated order at Jerusalem which had 
silenced all complaint and satisfied every want of the 
stranger with their liberal benefactions. So they began 
to send, and so continued to send, as we see in the last 
paragraph of PauPs Epistle to the Romans, where the 
order had sent themselves as well as their charities in 
goodly number. And these were greeted there as a 
female diaconate. Wherever, in any age, the relief and 
the elevation of woman are procured by the gospel, there 
cultivated women at home who enjoy its blessings are 
the main instrumentality of promulgation. 

Facts demonstrate that either virtually or in form 
woman must be trusted with collection and distribution 
in raising means for missions both at home and abroad. 
Why she is not commissioned, as man is, with a name 
and a place in the walls of this house — " an everlasting 
name that shall not be cut off" — is the wonder and the 
shame of our tardiness. All these four classifications 
of duty show that woman must indispensably be a 
partner, and the great movements of the kingdom at 
this time show her help as fast becoming the largest 
volume of benevolence. It should be regulated help, 
consolidated resources, governed responsibilities, char- 
tered recompenses and a titled " honor ;" otherwise, the 
titular significance of deacons will be that of a beggared 
heraldry among us. They seem to have little or nothing 
to do at present. The "male" member is idle, for the 



THE DEACONS. 401 

most part, and the busy females of this house are sup- 
porting him, actually doing his work more and better 
than he can do it, and yet they are not allowed to share 
his title — even the nominal credit of a name which is 
both male and female in its original. Time speeds on 
to make words to be things or to make them obsolete. 
The world itself will compel the Church to be con- 
sistent. 

26 



CHAPTER XIV. 

ORDINATION TO OFFICE. 

THE continuance of the Old-Testament ecclesia, or 
synagogue, in its organic forms through the early 
ages of Christianity until the Council of Nice — fully 
three centuries — can be marked in the names and num- 
bers of officers not only, but also, and especially, in 
the methods of investiture with office. Even after the 
old sacerdotalism returned and official parlance became 
" priest " more than ^^ elder '^ in designating the presby- 
ter and the parochial bishop, a formal induction com- 
bined the two actions of election and the laying on of 
hands. The Greeks called the former Xeiporovia, and 
the latter XecpoOzala ; the Latins comprehended both in 
the word ordinatio. Popular election is undoubtedly sig- 
nified by the former of these Greek words — literally 
" stretchino^ out the hand in votino^ '^ — and the second 
means the action of those already in office confirming 
the popular suffrage by laying their hands on the head 
of the chosen. In the Life of Alexander Severus (a. d. 
222-235), as written by Lampridius, we are told that 
this young emperor, whose mother is said (conjectu rally) 
to have been a Christian, ordered the scrutiny of the 
people to be invoked in estimating the character of 
those he designed to appoint to office under his gov- 
ernment. His words given by the historian evidently 

402 



ORDINATION TO OFFICE. 403 

blend the synagogue and the church together as one and 
the same visible institution in this particular : ^' He said 
it was a miserable thing that when the Christians and the 
Jews observed this method of publishing the names of 
their priests before they were ordained, the like care 
should not be taken about the governors of provinces, with 
whom the lives and fortunes of men were entrusted." * 
It is here plainly suggested that the formal grace of 
office among Christians, as well as among Jews, emanated 
from the people conditionally and primarily as well as 
from the powers above them in the nomination and 
ultimate confirmation. 

Both history and process, therefore, must be noticed 
in giving an accurate account of that introduction to 
Christian office which we call ordination. Instead of 
being a mystery or a sacrament or an impalpable some- 
thing which one man has and another has not, imparted 
on a peculiar occasion, it is transparently a matter of 
fact which common sense can read and understand. 
It is that solemnity in which one is set apart from the 
universal priesthood of believers to a special ministry in 
the Church of Christ. It is both visible and invisible 
in its nature, just like the Church itself If it were 
only visible, it would not be fit for the " mystery of 
godliness ;" if it were only invisible, it would belong 
to a different life in another world. Extreme simplifi- 
cation cannot express it, and logical finesse cannot de- 
fine it. 

Looking at the nature of such a consecration when 
it is complete and unquestionably valid, five distinct 
elements may be distinguished in making out the re- 
sult: 

* See Lardner's Works, vol. iv. p. 178. 



404 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

1. The gifts or aptitudes bestowed by the Head of the 
Church upon the candidate. Rom. xii. 8 ; Eph. iv. 

2. The desire awakened by the Holy Ghost for the 
exercise of such a calling. 1 Tim. iii. 1. 

3. This desire tested in the course of preparation 
made by education, experience and the formation of 
character. 

4. Appreciation by the people in having no objection, 
but rather approval, to make, and indicated either by 
immediate voting or by representative action. 

5. Public and formal confirmation by the act and 
declaration of those already in office, represented by 
a presiding officer who is authorized to make official 
announcement. 

The first three of these elements may be assumed 
either as sufficiently obvious or as belonging more to 
the studies of pastoral theology ; the fourth may be 
largely inferred from principles already presented more 
or less directly. The people, parents and children, con- 
stitute the Church as a visible body. To receive and 
accept an office is one of the cardinal rights and privi- 
leges of membership in the Church. The depository of 
power must ultimately be ascertained there in the body 
which inspiration describes to be "a royal priesthood, 
an holy nation, a peculiar people.^' Theocracy itself 
called upon all the tribes of Israel to signify assent to 
the choice of Levi in the consecration of persons to 
service in the sanctuary, and it is not merely at the 
installation of a man already ordained that the popular 
vote is made an integral part of the process : it is prior 
and deeper, as an element in the separation, for those 
who work with their hands to subsist themselves and 
others have a natural right to say who these others shall 



ORDINATION TO OFFICE. 405 

be ; aud if they are to be invested with any office which 
allows them to work also in the ordinary productions of 
labor, it must be one which bears immediately on the 
fellow-members concurrently with them in pursuits of 
industrial life. And because of this concernment there 
is a reasonable franchise of consent to be obtained for 
non-producing members. In short, there is no func- 
tional economy under the sun, physical or moral, with- 
out the level of some reciprocal action between claim 
and consent, office and suffrage. Any practical incon- 
venience may be avoided by representation, and yet this 
representation must not be out of sight, remote from the 
people and but constructively found. 

Imposed representation is only factitious aud cannot 
endure. Even the apostles, who represented the people 
at first by appointment of our Lord, without any popular 
election, hastened to begin organization by votes of the 
people (Acts vi.), and this not to relieve themselves of 
a troublesome responsibility, but to make a spiritual 
division of labor in which the people were immedi- 
ately represented by officers of their own choice. And 
soon afterward, at Antioch, as prophets and teachers 
were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy 
Ghost said to them, " Separate me Barnabas and Saul, 
for the work whereunto I have called them," and this 
work proved to be the organization of churches through 
Asia Minor, in which elders were ordained by the people 
voting {XecpoTOi^YJaavTe^)^ with confirmation by apostles 
ministered on their visitation when returning, after the 
people had an opportunity of " looking out " for them- 
selves to choose. Acts xiv. 23. We cannot accept the 
interpretation of the Greek word here given by Selden 
— in which he is followed by Vitringa — that the two 



406 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

distinct acts in ordination, election and confirmation, are 
blended together as one in the hands of apostles them- 
selves on this occasion. Granting that the ordination 
was their act, the mode, the persons chosen and the 
process of choosing may well be indicated in the terms 
of expression : the language has other words for mere 
appointment. The Authorized Version is, " Had or- 
dained them elders in every church ;" the recent Revised 
Version is, " When they had appointed for them elders 
in every church.'^ Why say "them" in one and "for 
them" in the other if the meaning is simply they or- 
dained or appointed elders ? Unless we understand the 
figurative gesture expressed by the word " stretching out 
the hand" to be a part for the whole proceeding, the 
voting of the people conjointly with the confirmation 
by apostles — that is, the latter procuring for themselves 
a designation by the people of the men whom they ac- 
cordingly ordained — we cannot understand the phrase- 
ology here. 

It is true that the general sense of appointment was 
accepted as a secondary and subsequent one for the term ; 
but it cannot be that apostles engrossed the whole action 
in ordaining elders, and that the people had less privilege 
in this procedure than in the appointment of deacons, 
where divided action is marked with such emphatic dis- 
tinctness. Surely the primordial pattern of ordination 
at Jerusalem Avas not lost in Asia, and the people of the 
Church were not excluded from voting for governors, 
when they had been previously called to " look out 
among themselves" for servants of the Church. The 
primary sense undoubtedly is to "appoint by vote;" 
and if the word for " voting " is used to express the 
whole transaction, we should allow at least an allusion 



ORDINATION TO OFFICE. 407 

or part of the meaning to be suffrage by the people, 
who were doubtless better acquainted with the men to 
be selected than were Barnabas and Saul. 

We are told by Clement of Rome in his First Epistle 
to the Corinthians — the purest fragment of all patristic 
litemture — that the first ordinations of bishops and dea- 
cons were done in the same way by the apostles, and 
that they were first proved, and then appointed. This 
probation is called by him ^'testing in the Spirit'^ or 
'' by the Spirit,'' with evident allusion to the direction 
of the apostles given to the people at the election of 
deacons : " Look ye out among you seven men of honest 
report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom." There 
was probation, therefore, made by the people themselves, 
as well as by the ordainers, from the beginning of the 
Christian Church in testing the fitness of candidates for 
any office. Later Fathers express the probation by in- 
sisting on all appointments made to be done in the 
presence of the people, to give opportunity to any one 
among them for making objection or signifying ap- 
proval. And sometimes the acclamations of the assem- 
bly would overwhelm the pleasure of ordainers them- 
selves, and compel them to consecrate the nominee of a 
multitude. Even the aristocratic Cyprian, after elders 
began to be called " priests,'' insisted that every ordina- 
tion should be performed in this way : " God commands 
a priest to be appointed in the presence of all tlie assem- 
bly — that is, he instructs and shows that the ordination 
of priests ought not to be solemnized except with the 
knowledge of the people standing near, that in the pres- 
ence of the people either the crimes of the wicked may 
be disclosed or the merits of the good may be declared ; 
and the ordination, which shall have been examined 



408 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

by the suffrage and judgment of all, may be just and 
legitimate." * Such is the strong tradition of a popu- 
lar element in any ordination to New-Testament office. 
And this has ever been secured by an antecedent 
preparation of the candidate, in the good providence 
of God, for the favor and confidence of the people. 
There must be under observation, directly or indirectly, 
among the people some prerequisite fitness they can trust 
in winning their suffrage. So in the year 374, when 
Auxentius, bishop of Milan, died and the Arians at- 
tempted to elect one of their own party as the successor, 
a tumult with the orthodox people became a riot in the 
church, and Ambrose, governor of Liguria, residing in 
Milan, had to come and quell it with his power. A 
little child cried out, when he appeared, " Ambrose ! 
Bishop r^ and presently the whole mob cried out, " Let 
him be the bishop !'^ He had been well known there 
for his excellent probity and skill as a civil ruler, and 
the Church accepted the nomination made even in this 
rude way. He was forthwith baj)tized, giving up his 
wealth and his worldly honors for the sacred office, and, 
being soon after consecrated with appropriate ceremonies, 
he became one of the most devoted, conservative and 
useful bishops that ever adorned the Latin Church. 
But far better than this accidental and exceptional way 
of popular election is the preliminary probation of can- 
didates devised in modern education. The method of 
licentiate itinerancy before ordination has hardly ever 
failed to work out the discovery of a man's fitness or 
unfitness in ascertaining the nomination of one who is 
heard gladly by the people, or, on the contrary, a sea- 
sonable discontinuance of probation by revoking the 
* Cyprian's Epistle 67. 



ORDINATION TO OFFICE. 409 

license when he is seen to have little or no favor with the 
people. A candidate for the ministry should therefore 
quit the cloister as soon as he quits the college, and 
should manifest his gifts to the people of the church as 
much as possible in consistency with training by study ; 
and especially if the practice be prevalent of contracting 
the interval between license and ordination to few days 
in order to fledge a novitiate quickly for evangelism 
at home or a mission abroad without the prior test of 
popularity, he should begin the trial of his gifts before 
them as soon as he begins theological study. For this 
element of popular consent is more ancient than are 
theological seminaries, and is too sacred to be strained 
out of ordination by haste and urgency of any circum- 
stances. 

Chastened popularity, therefore, is a prime condition 
of any office in the Church, as all the offices are em- 
braced in the scope of preaching, and we may briefly 
comprise the argument for this in the following propo- 
sitions : 

1. The very nature of the Church, as an assembly of 
the faithful, is that of a sacerdotal republic. Ex. xix. 6 ; 
1 Pet. ii. 9. As her members are all an election from 
the world, their officers are an election from themselves 
— a chosen few, moved by the Spirit, named by the peo- 
ple and consecrated by the vows which those who are 
already in office administer and confirm with becoming 
gesture and declaration to the people. Thus consecrated, 
they represent both God and man by the functions they 
exercise, the office being of divinii appointment and the 
ministration of it for the good of humanity. Such is 
the science of sacred office under all dispensations. Even 
the Levites, as observed before, when emphatically chosen 



410 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

of God as a whole tribe to tlie special service of religioD, 
and so permanently invested as to hold their commis- 
sion by inheritance, were not to be set apart without the 
consent of all Israel assembled. Num. viii. 9, 10. How 
much more consistent is it with the larger and freer 
franchise of the New-Testament Church, whose minis- 
ters of religion go up alike from every tribe and anew 
from every generation, thus to require a distinct consent 
of the people before the last formality of a complete 
consecration ! 

2. Acts of the Apostles furnish examples of the same. 
Even an apostle was thus chosen to fill the vacancy left 
by Judas. One apostle stood before the whole assembly 
of disciples and defined the qualifications required of the 
man to be chosen. The congregation then appointed — 
that is, nominated — two candidates, probably the only 
persons known to possess the precise qualifications pre- 
mised ; then " they prayed,^^ and " they gave forth their 
lots " to ascertain the divine designation which was to 
honor the popular nomination by taking one of their 
men. If su much was made of popular concurrence in 
the choice of Matthias to be an apostle, under the direc- 
tion of apostles and in their presence, how much more 
does it pertain to the appointment of ordinary, and per- 
manent officers of the Church that are supplied by 
choice without a lottery or any special interposition of 
Heaven ! 

Accordingly, the next example is more significant, 
being the first formal appointment in supplying the need 
of a permanent office, the election of the seven to super- 
intend the office and work of deacons. The apostles 
themselves moved first in this matter, to indicate that 
inspiration designed the whole transaction, to be copied 



ORDINATION TO OFFICE. 411 

indeed from the old economy, and now to be enlarged in 
the scope and dignity of service. But election by the 
people was to be still the same as it had ])een. " The 
whole multitude " of voters were called, the object of 
the call was explained, the qualifications of men to be 
chosen were prescribed, a vote was taken to approve the 
measure, and then the people in a " multitude '^ looked 
out for themselves the proper men to be elected ; and 
after this ^Sipozopta the confirming 'j^eipodeffia followed 
in consummation. 

Bellarmine objects to this radical proof that the ulti- 
mate depository of church power is in the people when- 
ever the Holy Ghost resides among them and within 
them, by saying it was "sl small material concern" which 
the apostles thus left to the people — the service of tables 
and the disbursement of money for an occasion. We 
answer. It was an office in the church that required men 
" full of the Holy Ghost and of faith " to man it, and 
spiritual men to discern and elect them — an office which 
Rome continued and exalted over elders, making it a 
preaching office higher than princes and everything that 
is rich and great except the sacerdotal. And if the 
people were to concur in choosing men to disburse their 
charities because of the interest they have in that ser- 
vice, w^hy should they not much more be allowed to 
choose men for the greater concernment of teaching and 
ruling them? 

Acts of the people are inseparably woven with acts 
of the apostles both before and after the miracles of 
Pentecost; so that only the witness-bearing pre-eminence 
of the latter in " the testimony of Jesus," to Jew and 
Gentile made them founders of Christianity. Their 
mission was not to rule or to make rulers, but to testify 



412 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

and to preach. Men who believed them governed them- 
selves, and only the ministry of gifts made new offices 
while they lived which were transient as themselves. 
Even before the supernatural and extraordinary agencies 
of that epochal fulness of time had passed away, and 
the apostolic representatives of the people, under the 
great commission of our Lord, were done with their 
peculiar work, they co-operated with the body of the 
faithful in upholding the old ecclesia, with its popular 
forms of franchise and Presbytery, and immediately 
afterward the traces of popular election were abundant 
in the primitive organizations of uninspired men. 

Clement of Rome, the first and best of the apostolic 
Fathers, in his genuine and authentic epistle to the 
Corinthians — the main object of which was to repress 
divisions among the people in regard to their officers, 
and especially teaching elders — says, in allusion to the 
apostles, " We are of opinion, therefore, that those 
appointed by them, or afterward by other eminent 
men, with the consent of the whole Church, and who 
have blamelessly served the flock of Christ in a humble, 
peaceable and disinterested spirit, and have for a long 
time possessed the good opinion of all, cannot justly be 
dismissed from the ministry.'^ Ch. xliv. In the next 
century (second) Tertulliau, in the thirty-ninth section 
of his Apology, writes, ^^The tned men of our elders pre- 
side over us, obtaining that honor not by purchase, but 
by established character J' Clement of Alexandria, in the 
same century, says in the thirteenth chapter of his Jlis- 
cellanies : " Such an one is in reality a presbyter of the 
church and a true deacon of the will of God if he do 
and teach what is the Lord's — not as being elected by 
men nor regarded righteous because a presbyter, but 



ORDINATION TO OFFICE. 413 

enrolled in the Presbytery because righteous." Cyprian, 
also, in the third century, whose churchly tendencies are 
prized so highly by churchmen who have long since 
eliminated the popular element in ordination, abounds 
in notices of popular voting as normally connected with 
the solemnities of ordination. In writing to his people 
at Carthage (Ep. 39) he speaks of some old venom 
against ^^ your suffrage and God's judgment," meaning 
the authority which had made him a bishop. In his 
fifty-fourth letter, addressed to Cornelius, he writes : 
"No one, after the divine judgment, aftei- the suffrage 
of the j)copJe, after the consent of the co-bishops, would 
make himself a judge, not now of the bishop, but of 
God." In his sixty-seventh epistle, speaking of Sabi- 
nus, a colleague, he says : " So that by the suffrage of the 
whole brotherhood, and by the sentence of the bishops, 
who had assembled in their presence, the episcopate was 
conferred upon him and hands were imposed upon him," 
etc. 

Thus we might glean expressions through all the 
literature of early and ante-Nicene Christianity which 
mean that believing people are the basis of a visible 
Church ; that the commission of our ascending Lord, 
which folded in its volume all representation, was 
bestowed upon them ; that the first and immediate 
representatives, being named by himself as witnessing 
apostles, were careful on all occasions to lean upon the 
suffrages of the body ; and that after they were with- 
drawn from the field the succeeding ministry considered 
the will of this body as a primal consent to be had and 
distinctly recorded in the annals of ecclesiastical pro- 
cedure. 

4. The wariness enjoined upon evangelists in 1 Tim. 



414 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

V. 22, " Lay hands suddenly on no man," must mean 
chiefly waiting on the people for the attestation of char- 
acter which they only can make in their opinions. Gifts 
might be ascertained quickly by one already in office and 
a lone ordainer be a competent judge ; but character must 
lie in popular estimation and be certified by the popular 
assent. And here again we are brought round to the 
premises from which we started. From the people 
themselves must be the reputation evolved as a rudiment 
in the title without which no power on earth can fairly 
appoint any man as a teacher, a ruler or a servant in the 
Church of Christ. Hence even councils were employed 
to regulate the ballot or method in which the popular 
will should be united with the clerical authority in ordi- 
nation. The Fourth Council of Carthage ordered that, 
as a bishop was not to ordain without the concurrence of 
the clergy, so also should he seek the satisfaction of the 
people : " Ita civium assensum et conniventiam et testi- 
monium quserat." And later councils ordered the viva- 
voce voting as better suited to call out the as.^ent or dis- 
sent of the people, with the words, d^io^ and dvd^io^, 
than the primitive "stretching out of the hand," — all 
this to manifest how the scruple descended on behalf 
of popular suffrage even after this equity was virtually 
buried under the feet of a hierarchy. 

It was this ancient and uniform choice by the people 
which led to the rigid necessity of ordaining ministers 
of the gospel, as well as other church-officers, in con- 
nection with some particular locality that gave title to 
the functionary. With singular inconsistency, the Coun- 
cil of Trent, which so definitely built the whole Church 
upon the bishops, and one line of bishops, eliminating all 
thought of the people from the conception of Church, 



ORDINATION TO OFFICE. 415 

insisted with special enactment on the necessity of some 
particular place being connected with every official in- 
vestment. Caste has not a local habitation. It was the 
notion of a ministry suited to the people and resting on 
the will of the people in each particular place which 
stereotyped the usage of ordination cum titulo. Protest- 
ants w^ho restore immunities to the people, and especially 
Presbyterians, who temper these rights with a conserva- 
tive authority of elders that represent the people as rulers 
in serving them, are not so rigid or so blind on this point. 
It is with them a living and reasonable restriction rather 
than a petrifaction. Ordinations with us are often — per- 
haps too often — made sine titulo; that is, without locating 
the teaching elder in a particular charge. 

In the earlier generations of the American Church 
this usage was not allowed in cases of ordination, be- 
cause it put out of sight too much the actual vote of the 
people, so scriptural and just and long-continued. The 
Presbytery had to ask the Synod for permission to do 
so in exceptional necessities. Samuel Stanhope Smith, 
distinguished in the history of Princeton education, a 
teacher of theology here before a seminary existed, de- 
sired to be ordained by the Presbytery of Newcastle in 
accepting a call from a church in the Presbytery of 
Hanover. The Presbytery consulted the Synod of 
Philadelphia, and the Synod refused because the vote 
of the people in making the call was too far away from 
the subsequent imposition of hands to consist with the 
unity and completeness of the proposed ordination. 
They must be seen together as one solemnity with two 
inseparable elements, and the people must vote at the 
ordination, as much as if it were only installation. The 
greater freedom of Presbyteries now has been occasioned, 



416 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

for the most part, by the imperative necessity of mis- 
sions, which predominate wisely and well in the usages 
of Presbytery at home and abroad. Ordinations sine 
titulo may be made safely among us — 

First J because a Presbytery in our system is not 
sacerdotal in its nature, but composed entirely of rep- 
resentatives of the people. Both ministers and elders 
are such, and what the people do by them they do by 
themselves, in fair construction. Ordaining power in 
them is, therefore, competent, as no prelate is to combine 
what the Bible conjoins — acts of the apostles and acts of 
the people together, both measure and mode of order 
according to the Scriptures. 

Secondly, because ordination is only means to an end, 
and therefore may be shaped in any way best calculated 
to secure that end when circumstances demonstrate the 
necessity of an exceptional mode. The special neces- 
sity of missions, descending to us from apostolic times, 
must retain the exceptional peculiarities of a formative 
state, and much must be done for the planting of churches 
at the first which should not be continued after an estab- 
lished organization. 

Thirdly. Established regulations must be popular and 
require more and more a deference to the will of the 
people, inasmuch as the choice of their will becomes 
wiser and safer by the general instruction which stated 
ordinances of grace will certainly diffuse. The cur- 
riculum of a theological education never advances faster 
than the intelligence of that public mind which it is 
preparing to guard and to guide; and the country, in 
every corner of it, is quite as capable as is the city, if 
not more so, in judging the merits of a licensed or an 
unlicensed preacher who comes to make trial of his gifts 



ORDINATION TO OFFICE. 417 

as a candidate for the ministry in full ordination. The 
itinerancy of a whole year, at least, should be assigned 
to any probationer, however gifted, if it could be done, 
by sending him to vacant churches with a scale of ap- 
pointments made in advance by competent authority, to 
save him from the embarrassment of being self-sent, 
with the appearance of scrambling for places. Su(3h 
arrangement saves the people also from the embarrass- 
ment of committing themselves more or less to the man 
they send for before knowing that he will suit them 
with his adaptations. Small denominations have adopted 
this method with a happy success, and large denomina- 
tions should have a bureau of supplies, with similar 
management, to make adjustments wisely, which will 
at once relieve and circulate the probation for that 
popular assent which the solemnity of ordination re- 
quires. Herein is the visible catholicity of our calling: 
" Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise 
men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble 
are called." The only medium in which Christianity 
can live and breathe is the average body of the people. 

The Laying on of Hands. 
Popular suffrage, in the form of expressed or implied 
assent of those who are to be served by the functions of 
any office, must be formally ratified by those already in 
office, either of the same or of a hiij-her detjree. After 
and along with the ^scf)OToi^cu, or gesture of voting, 
must be the ')^£if)o6e(Tca, or confirmation by the gesture 
of recognition, which has been the same in all ages of 
the ecclesia. Old Testament and New, laying hands on 
the head of a chosen candidate to signify the human 
cognizance of a divine selection and the notice to all 

27 



418 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

men of what God has entrusted to a particular man 
whom he has qualified and sent on a particular service. 
This requires, of course, the discernment of those who 
are qualified to judge by their experience in exercising 
the same functions as well as by their spiritual com- 
munion with the fountain of all authority in the Church 
of Christ. Added to this intrinsic propriety is the rela- 
tive necessity of order in all government on earth. The 
seals of office are handed over by the outgoing to the 
incoming official as a spectacle to all observers of an 
orderly tradition. The right hand of fellowship is ex- 
tended by those who are already within the circle of a 
good fraternity in the welcome offiired visilily to a 
newly-elected accession. 

The natural fitness of this final action sufficiently 
explains the nature of ordination — that it is an indica- 
tion rather than a communication, that no grace of office 
has been tied to its procedure, that the worthy receiver 
is by no "corporate or carnal manner'' like this visible 
transaction made partaker of any inward grace that he 
had not realized before this consummation of his call. 
In a word, ordination is not a sacrament in any distinct 
or proper sense, else our Lord himself would have made 
it a rite in his own ministry, as he did baptism and the 
Supper. When he ordained the original twelve, it was 
by simple appointment, and not by the laying on of his 
hands, and so, also, were the many sent forth by the 
Holy Ghost in apostolic times commissioned simply by a 
gift of office. True, the novitiate may receive a special 
increment of grace on that occasion, like any other in 
which the trial of his faith is made as it leans upon the 
promise, "Lo, I am with you alway." Whether it be 
ceremony, hardship, antagonism or conflict in the minis- 



ORDINATION TO OFFICE. il9 

try, it is all the same in deriving virtue from the Master 
according to our faith. Divine appointment on record 
in God's word is indispensable to the lodgment of special 
grace in any rite, and even when so appointed the min- 
istration to us must be that of the Holy Ghost, who 
signifies and seals sacramentally, in water, bread and 
wine only as these are set apart from a common to a 
sacred use by positive and perpetual injunction. 

When Timothy is enjoined to ^' lay hands suddenly 
on no man," we have the remarkable metonymy which 
imports three things, at least: 1. That there should be 
cautious delay on the part of the ordainer, and cor- 
responding maturity in the preparation of a candidate ; 
2. That the ceremony of consecration is to be conducted 
by one or more already in office ; and 3. That the lay- 
ing on of hands as a significant action should be con- 
tinued indefinitely as a crowning act in complete ordina- 
tion. It could not be the symbol in this case of con- 
ferring extraordinary gifts alone, as some allege ; for, 
besides the fact that none but apostles conferred those 
gifts, there could be no room for the exercise of discretion 
on the part of an evangelist : not even apostles could 
delay when moved by the Holy Ghost to act as an in- 
strumentality for that purpose. 

That this gesture of recognition was designed to be 
ordinary and perpetual in the tradition of office may be 
inferred also from examples in the New-Testament his- 
tory. Timothy's own ordination was " with the laying 
on of the hands of the Presbytery" (1 Tim. iv. 14) 
— a distinct action, obviously, from that of Paul in 
laying only his own hands on Timothy, as we have 
repeatedly observed, to impart a gift peculiar to that 
age, the extraordinary faith which dwelt in his mother 



420 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

and his grandmother. 2 Tim. i. 6. The gift so minis- 
tered by a lone apostle the recipient is exhorted to " stir 
up " — rekindle as with hot embers turned up from the 
ashes. But to stir up an office would be solecism in 
language. In regard to this the exhortation is entirely 
different, importing the experience of all ministers 
through succeeding time : " Endure afflictions, do the 
work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy minis- 
try.^' 2 Tim. iv. 5. Hence the propriety of the apostle's 
charge pertaining to ordination — "Neglect not," etc. 
" The laying on of hands,'' as a formality of induction, 
belongs to the ordinary and perpetual, therefore, as well 
as the extraordinary, in consecration to office. At the 
ordination of the " seven " (Acts vi.) the same formality 
was observed. And, whether we regard the seven as 
deacons merely or more than deacons — a ministry of 
gifts to superintend for a time that service, the ordinary 
and the extraordinary blended togetlier — we have the 
Old-Testament usage of this gesture initiated for in- 
definite duration in the New. And so familiar did this 
usage l3ecome that the apostle Paul seems to make " lay- 
ing on of hands " in figure a name for office itself, 
indicating a standing ministry in the church, to be per- 
petual, as are the fundamental doctrines of baptism, 
resurrection from the dead and eternal judgment. Heb. 
vi. 2. 

It being, therefore, obviously, a permanent usage, 
according to Scripture, we ought distinctly to understand 
what it means. AVe derive the significance of this 
action from the origin of its use in the Old Testament. 
When the dying Jacob, with the spirit of prophecy upon 
him, proceeded to bless the sons of Joseph, he guided his 
hands wittingly, though too blind to see, and, regardless 



ORDINATION TO OFFICE. 421 

of their own father's wish and suggestion, laid his right 
liand on the head of the younger and his left hand on 
the head of the elder — not to communicate anything, 
but to indicate only what the divine inspiration led him 
to discern and impelled him to utter about the tribal 
destinies of the grandchildren under his hands. Gen. 
xlviii. 14. 

When the Levites were chosen to wait as a tribe on 
the service of religion, a special consecration to the Lord, 
the whole assembly of tribes was gathered to lay their 
hands upon the heads of these brethren — not, surely, to 
impart any mystic virtue thereby, but to indicate the 
consent of all Israel that this tribe should be taken 
wholly, instead of the first-born of every family. Num. 
viii. 

When Joshua was to be set apart as the successor of 
Moses, it was said to the latter, " Take thee Joshua, the 
son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thine 
hand upon him ; and set him before Eleazar and before 
all the congregation, and give him a charge in their 
sight." Num. xxvii. 18. Nothing can be plainer than 
that here was merely a significant declaration by the use 
of the hand that an appointment had been already made 
and official unction already imparted. 

The ceremony of laying hands on the head of the 
victim when sin was publicly confessed and atonement 
made was not any communication of human sins to an 
irrational brute, but an expressive indication of liability 
transferred from the actual sinner to the legal substitute 
typified in the scape or the immolated beast. 

In short, all the various expressions of this act 
throughout the Old-Testament Scriptures may be re- 
duced to this radical import of designation, with solem- 



422 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

nity of emphasis, for the purpose of arresting attention 
and procuring respect for some one already appointed of 
God. The Church, being herself continued identically, 
has continued the same usages of ordination, attaching 
to it no mystery, realizing in it no communication, find- 
ing in it no descent of apostolic virtue, but wearing it 
ever as a badge of office to note and recognize the call 
of God and movement of his Spirit, and the resulting 
right of others to take part in the same ministry of rec- 
onciliation. Only the hands of our Lord himself, like 
"the hem of his garment^' in the time of supernatural 
dealing, could impart either functions of life or grace of 
office. Even his wonder-working apostles would ex- 
claim, " Why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by 
our power or holiness we had made this man to walk?" 
Their nominal successors can have no stream of virtue 
in them to flow higher than the fountain. The hands 
of a prelate are not more potential than were those of 
Peter and John '^ at the gate of the temple called Beau- 
tiful.'^ And surely now they cannot be in their im- 
position more certainly the occasion of a divine presence 
and touch than the meeting together of " two or three'' 
ministers in a Presbytery to conduct the solemnity of 
ordination. 

From our simple apprehension of the rite we may 
gather many conclusions of practical importance: 

1. That it is not essential to the validity of ordina- 
tion. Reverence for examples in the Bible and respect 
for the usages of nearly all Christendom, ancient and 
modern, as well as the becoming naturalness of the 
action itself for such a purpose, ought to make us care- 
ful and scrupulous in the conservation of this form, 
while, at the same time, we should not forget that it is 



ORDINATION TO OFFICE. 423 

only a form, and iu)t explicitly coninianded or appointed 
as a rite. Any officer in the church, from the highest to 
the lowest, might be validly inducted without the laying 
on of hands by those already in office to complete the 
ceremony of ordination when either by mistake or prej- 
udice or inconvenience it has been omitted. The first 
Book of Discipline used by the Church of Scotland 
dispensed with it expressly, saying, " Other ceremonies 
except fasting, with prayer, such as laying on of hands, 
we judge not necessary in the institution of the minis- 
try.'^ The Methodist Church also dispensed with it, as 
we understand, for a century of their distinct organiza- 
tion. While the Presbyterian constitution now requires 
it in the ordination of ministers, it does not recjuire it in 
the ordination of ruling elders and deacons, although the 
General Assembly of 1833 sanctioned the same formality 
in all such cases when it is preferred by any particular 
church. Convenience, however, as well as consistency, 
should be consulted. Everything in form which might 
produce confusion or levity in the circumstances should 
be avoided when it is not enjoined. 

2. A second inference from this unmysterious nature 
of laying on the hands in ordination is that the transac- 
tion of Presbytery which orders it is more important 
than the ceremony itself. The substantial norm of 
which it is a proper sign is tlie vote of a representative 
Presbytery. Mere election by the people, though called 
for by this vote, as well as implied in it, is a relative as 
well as an absolute necessity in the completeness of ordi- 
nation. It must relate to some official authority already 
existing, for alone it would be only revolution, an ex- 
treme necessity without law, which can seldom and 
hardly ever be justified. Even reformation is both 



424 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

departure from and quick return to constituted au- 
thority. It is every way a reasonable need as well as 
a positive command that the things which we have 
learned from able and faithful men we should commit 
to men of like character in succeeding us — not the thing, 
as if it were some mystic virtue we had received and 
were bound to deliver downward with a sacramental 
charm and seal, but ^^the things" — the knowledge, doc- 
trine, aptitude — we are to commit in the way of recog- 
nizing publicly and declaring that we believe such per- 
sons are taught of God and able to teach others also. 
This declaration is made both to God and to man, and 
by the usage of prayer more essentially than by that of 
imposing hands. It is made partly in fasting also, 
according to examples in Scripture. And these three 
exercises ought to be insepai-able, converging in the 
thought of recognition invoked and announced by those 
already in office that the candidate is called of God to 
take part in this ministry with us. 

3. A third inference is that such declaration in the 
symbolic action should be made only by those who have 
the power of order, distinct from that of jurisdiction, to 
perform all the public ceremonies of religion. The gest- 
ure in question is intrinsically soluble in words, and 
therefore only ministers of the word whom we call 
"teaching elders'' should perform it, and that in all 
cases of ordination where it is adopted as the usage to 
lay hands ou the head of the ruling elder and the 
deacon as well, these concurring in the action. In- 
stances have occurred in certain branches of the Pres- 
byterian family, when the quorum of preachers could 
not be present, of allowing one or more of the ruling 
elders to lay hands upon the head of a minister in his 



ORDINATION TO OFFICE. 425 

ordinatiou. This alternative may not invalidate the cere- 
mony, indeed, but it is incongruous and might lead to 
confusing the due order of God\s " house and family/' 
It is enough for the ruling elder to vote the ordination, 
in Session or in Presbytery, as a representative of the 
people, but he is not in every office nor commissioned to 
expound the nature of any office in the way of public 
instruction, and therefore that epitome or symbol of 
such instruction which we see in the laying on of hands 
should be reserved in all cases to the ministers of the 
word, not excluding, however, the actual concurrence of 
elders or deacons, as the case may be, when addition is 
made to their own order respectively. 

4. A fourth corollary from our simple apprehension 
of a complete ordination is that it may be repeated just 
as often as there is need of a new and solemn notifica- 
tion to the Church and the world that the same indi- 
vidual is called of God to another office or special func- 
tion in the spiritual commonwealth. There is one 
ordination for the deacon, another for the ruling elder, 
a third for the teaching elder — a progression which has 
often been made, and which may often be made again. 
The form is always the same when properly complete, 
and distinction is made only in the vows administered 
and in the charge given. We have a striking example 
of this procedure in the thirteenth of Acts, where men 
already in the ministry — Barnabas and Paul — were set 
apart by divine direction, with fasting and prayer and 
the laying on of hands, for even a special mission in 
which they were employed not over three years. Many 
similar illustrations may be gleaned from history. In 
the Wesleyan polity bishops and elders are the same in 
rank, the former being chosen superintendents of the 



426 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

latter for the sake of order and efficiency in service. 
Yet when an elder is elected to their episcopate the 
Methodist Episcopal Church give him another ordina- 
tion in form, as he is now set apart to a special and 
paramount function supervening on the eldership. So, 
precisely, though inversely, our elders have one ordina- 
tion as rulers and another as teachers, while both are in- 
cluded in the scriptural term " elder." 

If the wisdom of the Holy Ghost would order a 
special ordination for Barnabas and Saul to signalize 
their consecration to a particular mission appointed in 
which prophets and teachers laid their hands on a min- 
ister of gifts and another of apostleship — if a modern 
church distinguished for practical economy, if not for 
scriptural breadth in matters of government and dis- 
cipline, will have a new ordination of some among 
others in parity for a special function that seems to the 
world a superior and different office altogether — why 
should it be objected to the Presbyterian scheme, which 
makes a generic sense of elder, that it cannot consistently 
require another ordination of the man who passes from 
the status of a ruling to that of a teaching presbyter ? 
Divest the rite of mystical import and make it simply 
the signal of another step forward in the visible king- 
dom of Christ, and we shall be vexed no more with 
supernatural problems in its natural history. 

5. We are brought now to a fifth conclusion from our 
obvious premises — that ordination is in no sense what- 
ever a sacrament or a channel in which faith is to find 
what has been found already in preparation for this 
formal enactment. As we have already noticed, the 
true grace of office will find its increment in any occa- 
sion, and in the very hardships of faithfulness occasioned 



ORDINATION TO OFFICE. 427 

by its own functions, quite as much as, or more than, 
in the mere act of inauguration. Even accepting the 
vague definition of sacrament among the English di- 
vines — "a visible sign of an invisible grace'' — we may 
well ignore the channel of communication supposed to 
be implied in the solemnity of ordination, and affirm 
that it is a sign of grace already bestowed whenever the 
candidate has been moved by the Spirit of God to seek 
the investment : '' To him that hath shall be given ;" 
" Take thee a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thine 
hand upon him.'' A gesture is no sacramental sign : 
there must be a material substance, and that specified by 
our Lord in his ow^n express injunction. He did not 
lay his hands on any one to ordain him nor command 
his apostles to do so, nor yet interfere with them in 
their manifest continuance of Old-Testament usages, of 
which this laying on of the hands was a prominent one 
without being at all connected with sacraments, either 
old or new. 

^' The sacrament of orders," as it is called in the Latin 
Church, has always been a problem of perplexity in the 
adjustment of virtue supposed to be communicated by 
the laying on of hands, and any hierarchical system, 
in pro})ortion to the number and variety of graduated 
office in the structure, must have some scale of allow- 
ance on which to estimate both quality and quantity in 
the distribution of a mystic efficacy conveyed. The 
Council of Trent was grievously baffled in attempting 
the task. Ordainers could not, of course, impart any- 
thing else or more than what is in themselves deriva- 
tively — of kind, at least. And still greater was the 
embarrassment in ascertaining the difference of degree 
in which the same sort of virtue should be measured 



428 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

out in supplying subordinate ranks of the same generic 
priesthood. Similar confusion betides the speculation 
of Protestant writers, who, though not affirming the 
sacramental nature of ordination, allege the probability 
of an active faith on the part of an intrant, finding 
official grace in the channel of a ceremony coming down 
through the ages like a conduit from the apostles them- 
selves. Such a theory, to be consistent, must consider 
official grace in parcels ; each office conveying only what 
is in itself to flow, each level must have its own rivulet 
— bishops only ordaining bishops ; elders only, elders ; 
deacons only, deacons. For no officer can give to others 
what he does not possess himself, and to give one of 
inferior degree less than he possesses incurs the task of 
calculating a subtracted value in official grace, which 
would make a frivolous mystery of all Christian office. 
How incomparably better and more becoming the dig- 
nity of Christian faith is that declarative recognition by 
those already in office of the fitness which God has given 
the aspirant for this or any other office to which he is 
called in the Church ! The laying on of hands by the 
ministry of the word signifies this much, and no more. 
^' The simplicity that is in Christ " needs only indication 
and emphasis in any gesture of man. 

6. We need not be troubled much about reordination. 
On the same principle that we ordain an officer who has 
been ordained to one office when he advances to another 
of different functions, we receive the minister of a dif- 
ferent denomination whose form of ordination differs 
from our own and would not be accredited as regular 
according to our own constitution. The only question 
to be raised is the manifest intention and adequate 
declaration of any form which is unlike our own. If 



ORDINATION TO OFFICE. 429 

the same duties of office were contemplated and the 
same fitness recognized and the same notification de- 
signed by legitimate ordainers outside of our own de- 
nomination, there should be no hesitation of acceptance 
because of a div^ersity of usage for the same end. The 
de-facto formation of another branch in the visible 
Church may have to wait for a time until the organ- 
ization is fairly understood by older branches. There 
was a refusal by the Presbyterian Church in 1792, and 
repeated in 1800, to recognize ordination by the Meth- 
odist Church ; but ten years later, this refusal being 
maturely reconsidered, it was resolved by the General 
Assembly that it should not be a precedent to "guide 
the future decisions of the judicatories.'' And this was 
reaffirmed emphatically in 1852 (p. 210). In 1821 it 
was put on record that " the Presbyterian Church has 
always considered the ordinations of most other Prot- 
estant churches as valid in themselves, and not to be 
repeated.'' 

But it must be " a pious and learned ministry " that 
is validated so in giving and receiving ordination — 
" faithful men who shall be able to teach." This is the 
scriptural fitness to be recognized and proclaimed in the 
solemnity. Churches that ordain the uneducated who 
have no other evidence of fitness than desire to exercise 
"the office of a bishop," though not unchurched in the 
reckoning, are not to be recognized as regular in the rite 
of ordaining to the ministry of the word. Their min- 
isters may come to us and " wait for orders " only in 
waiting for a competent education, and, this being as- 
certained, a simple vote of the Presbytery is enough 
to acknowledge the validity of ordination already upon 
them. We " require the applicants from other denora- 



430 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

illations to continue their study and preparation till they 
are found, on trial and examination, to be qualified in 
learning and ability to teach in the manner required by 
our standards, but that when found thus to be qualified 
it shall not be necessary to reordain the said applicants, 
but only to install them when they are called to settle in 
Presbyterian congregations." * 

The simplicity and largeness of the principle here 
affirmed is in contrast with the complicated agonies of 
those artificial systems of Catholicism which make a 
sacramental importance of words and gestures in the act 
of ordination. There has been as much trouble about 
the omission of a word or two in pronouncing a formula, 
or about the exact pedigree of an officiating prelate, as 
if the rock itself on which the Church is built had been 
shaken by the blunder. Councils have been called 
and sees have thundered excommunication against one 
another in fighting over the maladministration of a 
rite which superstition invests with cabalistic mystery. 
" The result at length," says Palmer, ^' is to recognize 
no ordinations which are made in heresy or schism ;" 
and wherever a doubt exists about the validity of even 
a Catholic ordination the refuge is in repetition, know- 
ing that the grace imparted cannot be in excess, while 
the want of it may jeopard the souls of men. And 
yet, as repetition implies the invalidity of priestly acts 
already done, the conservators of this grace are sadly 
perplexed by any accident or inadvertence, and might 
well covet the easier conscience of what they call ^' un- 
coV'enanted " Presbyterians. 

7. The laying on of hands in ordination does not 
communicate authority any more than grace of office 

* Minutes of 1821, p. 15. 



ORDINATION TO OFFICE. 431 

to preach and administer the sacraments. It is no 
more than simply an official declaration by the Church 
that the candidate is authorized by Christ himself now 
to proceed in the Avork of the ministry. A recognition 
of what supreme authority in the kingdom orders must 
be always declarative only by a faithful ministry that 
is already in exercise. The ministration of the Spirit 
alone is " glorious," and the ministry of reconciliation 
committed to us can be such only as it is hidden and 
subservient behind that lustre. We make it known that 
we are sent only, and that we send others only as God 
sends them to take part in this ministry with us, using 
no power and authority on our part but that of attesta- 
tion. 

8. Representative authority is exhausted in this im- 
position of hands. It is instrumental in sending a min- 
ister into the whole field with a general commission, but 
to localize him or assign him to a particular place as the 
pastor of a special flock and fold there must be installa- 
tion at a special suffrage of the people. Here is the 
pure democracy of Church government, and representa- 
tion is not needed more than to guide the will of the 
people. Wherever it is convenient for all the members 
of the church, male and female, who have come to the 
years of discretion, to assemble themselves in choosing a 
pastor, there the popular element must be signalized with 
peculiar distinctness according to the scriptural examples 
collated before. Each particular church may have a life 
and character peculiar to itself, a taste and judgment 
which must be allowed to select the man who is deemed 
the best fitted for service therein. The governing Pres- 
bytery has to see that the catalogue from which a minister 
is chosen must be well authenticated ; so that the will 



432 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

of the people, liowever sovereign and free, sliall not Ije 
allowed to choose a man to their hurt — one who raight 
lead them astray to another gospel. 

Installation, therefore — a subsequent ceremony to that 
of ordination — constituting the particular tie of pastor 
and people, as a measure of order differs from it in 
the more immediate voting of the people for a teach- 
ing elder who has been accredited by their representa- 
tives to be sound and capable, and also in the superven- 
ing declaration by the Presbytery or their commission 
that the mutual contract of the parties, pastor and people, 
is approved and ratified. This declaration is made in 
words, and not in gesture. It recognizes and declares 
the will of man — pastor and people — while the laying 
on of hands recognizes and declares the will of God in 
calling man to any office in the kingdom of grace. His 
will, indeed, is to be recognized in both solemnities, but 
grace is emphasized in ordination and providence in in- 
stallation. 



CHAPTER XV. 

JUDICATORIES. 

A CONGREGATIONAL court for the exercise of 
government and discipline over the people of a 
particular church is virtually established in the ordi- 
nation of ruling elders. Along with the pastor, these 
are, of course, to be employed, according to the import 
of their office, in the joint administration of rule. 
Aldermen must have their council and senators their 
assembly, and every other derivative, from the name of 
age among men through all the analogies of good civil 
government, must have a conventional force in the chief 
exercise of authority : ^' Where no counsel is, the people 
fall ; but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.'' 
When so assembled in local jurisdiction of minimum ex- 
tent, the elders are called a judicatory in general, and a 
Session or consistory in particular. 

That every particular church should have a tribunal 
of some kind to determine matters of common interest 
in church-life, and especially discipline, will be conceded 
wherever Church and State are not united. That the 
principle of representation requires a tribunal composed 
of men fairly and freely chosen by the people of its pre- 
cinct will also be conceded wherever the Church is not a 
caste or its governors hierarchal. And these conces- 
sions are constrained by the dictates of reason and by 
the precedents of Scripture at the foundation of Chris- 

28 433 



434 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

tianity : "elders in every city," "elders in every church" 
(Tit. i. 5; Acts xiv. 23) — a plurality always — also by 
the express direction of our Lord (Matt, xviii. 15-20) 
and by the various injunctions of submission to those 
who have the rule over any church in particular — plural 
in number always. 1 Thess. v. 1 2. The one-man power 
is precluded from the beginning. Even apostolical 
power was combined, and not single, in juridical ad- 
ministration during its phenomenal and transitory exist- 
ence. 

Many schemes have been devised, however, to super- 
sede the council of officers in a particular church as 
notably ordained in primitive times. Leaving aside at 
present the episcopate of prelacy and other kindred 
systems which entrust a circuit of discipline to one 
presiding elder, we may well consider at this place a 
too prevalent wish of the people to be virtually rid 
of their own immediate representatives and to confide 
the government of their church to the pastor alone whose 
ministry is popular and influence paramount. This 
tendency revolts from primitive Christianity, hazards 
the happiness of a pastor, makes him despotic in temper 
when he likes it or neglectful of grave responsibilities 
imposed on him against his will and taste. The pastor 
is unable to govern alone. If he is given to reading and 
meditation to such a degree as the nourishment of his 
hearers and the defence of the gospel require, he cannot 
know the facts and circumstances which must be known 
to manage a righteous exercise of discipline. His de- 
fective knowledge of human nature, his peculiar habits 
of thinking and feeling, his morbid sensibilities, induced 
by study and retirement, the false exhibition of character 
which deceives him so often when he does mingle with 



JUDICATORIES. 435 

the work] in social intercourse, — all these considerations 
evince that the teaching elder alone is incompetent and 
oppressed with the government of a cougregation. 

Even if he were able and willing to exercise discipline 
alone, he ought not to be trusted without safeguards for 
the people as well as for himself in a selected bench of 
counsellors and assessors. It was, in fact, the gradual 
and silent transfer of such authority from the parish 
council to their aspiring bishop which made the original 
change from a constitutional freedom to spiritual despot- 
ism and led to the loss of popular suffrage altogether. 
Synods and councils, to which many historians are so 
fond of ascribing the progress of clerical ambition and 
the development of an arrogant hierarchy, would have 
been a bulwark in every age alike of ministerial parity 
and popular liberty, as they now are, but for the paro- 
chial change in which a representative bench surrendered 
to the monarchic priest. Ruling elders being reduced 
to the standing of laymen, superior courts being there- 
fore constituted of clergy alone, and the popular element 
subtracted thus from all the gradations of ecclesiastical 
regime, the whole fabric did consequently become a con- 
spiracy against religious freedom, the right of private 
judgment and scriptural instruction of the people rather 
than the embodiment of ecumenical wisdom and grace. 

Another scheme for the government of a particular 
church is to have a plurality of elders exercise the over- 
sight without distinction among them into teaching and 
ruling. Instead of pastor and Session in council — the 
former a teaching elder and the latter ruling elders — 
certain branches of Anabaptist independency would 
have the elders homogeneous, each one both ruler and 
preacher. ^^ The Disciples," as they are called, followers 



436 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

of Thomas and Alexander Campbell, have "evangelists" 
also in the organization, who are understood to be given 
wholly to the ministry, but only as itinerating ministers, 
except in large towns and cities. Three-quarters of the 
century have hardly yet cleared up the practical work- 
ing of this polity, and the "no-creed" postulate of the 
denomination eschews definition so warily that we are 
left in ignorance of the system, and can only speculate 
upon its outcome and ultimate formation. It is obvi- 
ous, however, that extremely few particular churches in 
Christendom can support more than one teaching elder, 
who is given wholly to spiritual work, as he ought to 
be, living at the altar and supplied with carnal things 
by other working hands. A plurality of pastors and 
teachers to guide one church together must be a ministry 
without education for the most part, and consequently 
without force enough to defend the gospel in these 
days. 

Another plan for the government of a particular 
church, as far as it is governed by officers at all, is to 
make the deacon a ruler along with the pastor. His 
official name in this way becomes a misnomer, for it 
means a servant rather than a ruler, and such invasion 
of title belongs to a time of confused formation, as in 
the Church of Scotland when the First Book of Dis- 
cipline was made, and the modern churches of New 
England — a dernier alternative since the discontinuance 
of ruling elders there. Although, as we have seen, the 
term is a general appellative applied to any and every 
officer of the Church, the utmost precision of meaning 
is demanded now by the expanding charities of the 
faithful. It is no time any more to lose a distinct 
vocabulary for the care of the poor and the service of 



JUDICATORIES. 437 

tables : " As the Lord hath called every one so let him 
walk." Distributiou has become the supreme necessity 
of our times, and every officer whose origin and desig- 
nation both are on this line may not transcend its dignity 
without unfaithfulness and degradation. Woman will 
displace him and take the glory. 

But the most plausible substitute for a bench of elders 
to exercise governing authority is the people themselves 
in a congregation of church-members. This theory of 
self-government is the main feature of the Independent 
and Congregational systems, and we call it '' theory " 
because it happens to be seldom or never carried into 
practice without some adjuvant machinery of pastor, 
deacons and committee-men to convert the popular vote 
into a formal registration of their decisions. What we 
do by others we do by ourselves. This axiom of repre- 
sentation cannot be inverted without being lost. We can- 
not say that what we do by ourselves we do by others with- 
out the initials of tyranny, making ourselves masters of 
others. Radical freedom and abject slavery are near 
neighbors. The temple of God upon earth is the visible 
Church — a building of Christ — and all the analogies of 
architecture must be at fault if the bottom and the top, 
the foundation and the tower, the pedestal and the en- 
tablature of her columns, are the same in the view of 
her Builder and the attraction of her people. We look 
to the people as a basis of church-power on earth ; but 
we look to God, who made and redeemed them, for the 
authority which works on this basis to shape his designs 
and keep it as his own. This authority is reposed in 
the offices which are created and filled by himself, ac- 
cording to his word. 

1. The people are not qualified to conduct church 



438 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

government immediately with their own hands. Many 
of these are weak in understanding, and more of them 
are inexperienced, not having senses exercised maturely 
enough for judging wisely. Tt is possible, also, and 
not uncommon, to find members intelligent enough to 
enjoy the means of grace for themselves and their 
families disqualified for that calm, patient and discrim- 
inating investigation of facts which every trial demands, 
and much more the right inference from Scripture and 
reason of what constitutes oifence and how it should be 
censured. Rightly to construe offences and administer 
the just reprehension requires wisdom and tact which 
even the ripest minds of the Church do not always 
possess. Her most gifted preachers themselves are not 
infrequently as children at the work of discipline ; and 
when we consider that persons least qualified to judge 
are often most forward to try it, most clamorous and 
precipitant in the exercise of judgment, there must 
appear extreme hazard of perversion and mischief in 
admitting all members alike to judicial or executive 
voting. 

Bodies of men separated from the world to member- 
ship in the Church are also well known to be susceptible 
of management by the skill of a few men — perhaps a 
single individual whose influence may have been ac- 
quired by speech or wealth or family connection or 
political faction ; and one argument from such a mem- 
ber at a particular crisis may suffice to pervert judg- 
ment and hurry a whole congregation into rash and 
iniquitous decision. When responsibility is not official, 
it is not felt by the many with adequate apprehension ; 
it is diluted as it is divided — infinitesimal as it is meas- 
ured by the many. Doubtless the sway of prejudice 



JUDICATORIES. 439 

may pervert the conscience of presbyter as well as 
people ; but the probabilities are incomparably fewer 
and the damages more easily repaired. There is no 
appeal in this life from the sentence of a multitude. 

And yet such a sentence may be frequently incurred. 
Such is the liability of popular bodies to bend under 
the stress of individual power that there is scarcely in 
existence a popular assembly, civil or ecclesiastical, 
which is not led for a time by some one dictator or 
torn into factions by the rival exertion of different 
aspirants who would be dictators. And when we 
consider the ^^emulations'' in their mutual envy and 
jealousy, the bitter disappointment of some and the 
resentful triumph of others in a petty contention for 
local ascendancy, we cannot believe that the all-wise 
Head of the Church has confided the delicate and 
momentous conduct of her discipline to the many beset 
with such possibilities. In apostolic times, when the 
whole body of the faithful was miraculously endowed 
and elevated to a level of spiritual grace and goodness 
which was never known before or after, there might 
safely be made a reference of the Corinthian case and 
others to " the many " as an ultimate tribunal ; and even 
since the Reformation restored the right of private judg- 
ment and popular study of the Bible there might be, 
with the environment of Puritan faith and manners, an 
adventure for a time in this way ; but these are epochal 
exceptions in the light of revelation, history, observation 
and later experience. 

Moreover, could we find a congregation as well quali- 
fied and free from bias or tumult as any bench of repre- 
sentative elders can be, other objections are weighty. 
There would be, of course, a want of secrecy, which 



440 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

many causes demand for safe and profitable issue. Many 
an offender, instead of being led to repentance by the 
private dealing of an eldership, has been stung only 
with carnal shame, overwhelmed with confusion of mind 
and hardened at length to final impenitence in being 
exposed at every step of investigation to the idle im- 
pertinence of a crowd. Vexatious delay also at one 
step, and headlong precipitance at another, and blun- 
dering reporters at every step, must agitate the popular 
venue so much that process becomes more troublesome 
than offence itself, and results in the propagation of 
scandal more than in the correction of evil. One trial 
has more than once destroyed a prosperous church. 

If this way of discipline be the primitive model, as 
its advocates allege, it ought to be suited to newly- 
evangelized countries Avith special adaptation ; for these 
are the field where apostolic precedent has mainly fur- 
nished our lead. Imagine a missionary met with his 
converts for the adjudication of some difficult case re- 
quiring much thought and able investigation of God's 
word as the chief directory. His people as yet are but 
little informed and know little or nothing of this word 
but the simple story of the cross. The truths which 
belong essentially to their salvation are not casuistical 
theology in their minds. They are as '' little children " 
exhorted by the apostle John to '^ walk in truth " and 
" let no man deceive them.'' Consultation is impossible 
in their assembly, and they vote only as the teacher 
himself directs them. One man's will is the only inde- 
pendence, the native heathen see, in the procedures of 
discipline. Officers of the church must begin, conduct 
and close the question for deliberation. Even at the 
new settlements of our own country the instinct of Con- 



JUDICATORIES. 441 

gregationalism would seek in a '' plan of union ^' with 
other forms of government to mix organization and 
combine its own executive weakness with the strength 
of more compacted systems until the surroundings of a 
complete Christian civilization, which it has done so 
much to produce, will enable it to venture on its own 
ideal. 

2. The inexpediency of governing a particular church 
by the members themselves, without a representative 
eldership selected by their votes, may well be inferred 
from Scripture intimations which are authoritative be- 
yond the presumption of reason or the induction of 
facts. When the apostle Paul enumerates in the largest 
catalogue of offices in the New Testament (1 Cor. xii. 
28) the specialties of power bestowed on the people 
for their benefit and service, he says, ^' God hath set 
some in the church." The divine appointment is 
emphatic — " hath set," iOero, the Greek word for offi- 
cial constitution. The distribution also is emphatic — 
" some," not all — and the recapitulation is so, likewise, 
in urging distinctness: ''Are all apostles? are all 
prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of mira- 
cles?" etc. He does not add, "are all governments?" 
because every other office, ordinary and extraordinary, 
did include authority in its very nature, just as we 
say the teaching elder includes the ruling elder in his 
functions, while personally and officially distinct from 
the latter. The entire list is here emphasized as distinct 
from the people, and ''governments" are mentioned as 
a qualification common to all and by itself, as in the 
ruling elder, yet one-eighth only in the range of all 
the specialties of office. Nothing in language could be 
more conclusive in distinguishing the people themselves, 



442 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

as a body, from the ruling set over them by divine 
appointment. "Governments" are "some," not all, 
among the members, and this word in the original 
(xul3epv^(T£c^) comprehends all the varieties of superin- 
tending authority in the Church — guiding, directing, 
judging and enforcing judgment — as one governs a 
ship at sea. 

Another passage of Scripture making a distinction 
obvious between the rulers and the ruled in church gov- 
ernment is (Heb. xiii. 24), " Salute all them that have 
the rule over you, and all the saints." Surely no trans- 
lation can be better than these authorized words. Twice 
in the same chapter this difference between the rulers 
and the ruled had been made with imperative force. 
Ver. 7 : " Remember them which have the rule over 
you, wdio have spoken unto you the word of God ;" 
ver. 17 : " Obey them that have the rule over you, and 
submit yourselves," etc. It is of no advantage to Inde- 
pendency that these rulers are spiritual guides, and this 
is the primary sense of the word — going before and 
leading the saints. For, of course, it is leading with 
authority which the vsaints are to " obey," and the con- 
necting "and," which is distinctive also, cannot make 
the termination of this great book of the canon a drivel- 
ling tautology. Take any other familiar text which 
enjoins obedience and honor to whom honor is due, 
such as 1 Tim. v. 17: "Let the elders that rule well 
be counted worthy of double honor." Can this com- 
mand be reconciled with the presumption that the people 
of a particular church rule themselves, and the rever- 
ence of their elders must mean resj)ect for those who 
merely collect and declare the result of popular delib- 
eration and decision? And if, as certain Independent 



JUDICATORIES. 443 

writers argue, the " honor '' here means pay or stipend 
for the support of their guides, according to the context 
analogy, ^* Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth 
out the corn. And the laborer is worthy of his re- 
ward," then the pleasure of the people who rule them- 
selves in threshing may consist in taking "double" pay 
to themselves ! In the light of Scripture as well as of 
reason this method of church government does really 
seem to be, as Jonathan Edwards called it, a " confused 
way." 

3. Emblems of investiture indicate power in officiating 
distinct from that of the people and over them in the 
Lord. Such was the nominal delivery of keys in the 
original constitution of the Christian ministry. Matt, 
xvi. 18 ; xviii. 18 ; John xx. 23. Like a steward's 
badge, worn upon the shoulder of old, designated by 
the lord of the house for a sign of superiority in a serv- 
ant for a time, even over children of the family, who 
share the inheritance; like the sceptre of a kingdom 
founded on the rights of a people who are precluded 
themselves from wielding that symbol of authority in 
the hands of princes by their succession, though the 
ultimate ownership be that of the people ; like the 
Constitution of our own national government, made by 
the people and abiding at their will, authorizing investi- 
ture at the voluntary suffrage of majorities, while they 
cannot personally assume office or its prerogatives to 
themselves at their own option, — is investment with the 
keys which our Lord originally conferred on his disci- 
ples as representatives of the faithful. The people, as 
a body, cannot at their pleasure take office or exercise 
its functions, although It belongs to them in its full 
value, its outcome, protection and usefulness. 



444 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

It has been objected that the keys were given to Peter 
upon his confession " Thou art the Christ," etc. — a con- 
fession which private members of the Church in any age 
may make as well, who are therefore equally entitled — 
in their assemblage, at least — to bind and loose on earth 
in the exercise of church power. But this presumption 
is a lame conclusion. Because a function of momentous 
import was bestowed on one believer when he made a 
good confession, it does not follow that the same devolves 
on every believer who makes the same confession. His 
appointment is not bound by a precedent, for it is sover- 
eign. Occasions are like chaff before the wind, " which 
bloweth where it listeth." On a subsequent occasion the 
Saviour asked repeatedly, '^ Simon, son of Jonas, lovest 
thou me?" and for his repeated answers in the affirma- 
tive he commissions Peter with repeated emphasis : 
" Feed my sheep — feed my lambs ;" yet it does not 
follow that the same commission that thus openly re- 
stored the apostleship — which it might be supposed he 
had lost by the denial of his Master — now devolves on 
every penitent believer who can say with sincerity he 
loves the Saviour, and loves him more than others, to 
feed with the authority of a shepherd the sheep and 
the lambs of Christ. 

It has been again objected that " the keys " are not 
metaphorical of power, but of knowledge and prece- 
dence. We may readily admit, as it was customary to 
deliver a key to the rabbi in token of his initiation, that 
a secondary and subordinate sense of the figure was of 
this kind, for so Peter was distinguished from the other 
apostles in the address to him as a predecessor and rep- 
resentative in being the first preacher to the Jews on the 
day of Pentecost, and also the first to open up the access 



JUDICATORIES. 445 

of Gentiles to the knowledge of the gospel. But we 
cannot exhaust the emblem by this meaning without 
overlooking the signification of pre-eminent power dis- 
tinctly given it in Scripture (Tsa. xxii. 20 ) : " It shall 
come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant 
Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah ; and I will clothe him 
with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle ; and 
I will commit thy government into his hand, and the 
key of the house of David I will lay upon his shoulder; 
he shall open and none shall shut, and he shall shut and 
none shall open.'' Corresponding to this in the Old Tes- 
tament we read in the New (Rev. iii. 7) : " And to the 
angel of the church in Philadelphia write. These things 
saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key 
of David, he that opeueth and no man shutteth, and that 
shutteth and no man openeth." The power of Jesus 
was the preface of inauguration by his hands, and we 
have the stupendous intimation of this from his own 
lips in conferring the last great commission before he 
ascended — "All power is given unto me in heaven and 
in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations'' — that 
a derived and immanent potency must belong to every 
office created by his will and filled by his Spirit. Being 
always representative King of the people he saves, the 
sceptre is by no means levelled to this community itself 
in the exercise of authority over them, for it is the 
essence of true representation to do what the repre- 
sented cannot do for themselves. 

4. Acts of government and discipline are ascribed 
directly to officers alone, so far as the Scriptures give 
us examples. The first is admission of members to the 
visible Church. When three thousand on the day of 
Pentecost were added to the church after the preaching 



446 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

of a sermoD, it was impossible to hold the deliberations 
of a congregation to vote them in npon the a})})lication 
of converts, for in that hour of transition from the old 
to the new economy of membership the faith which be- 
longed to that renovation would follow the elder as usual 
in suitable organization, to be formally recognized in the 
body of Christ. Undoubtedly, many believers on him 
were attached to synagogues which were not wholly con- 
verted by the infusion of Christian doctrine and sacra- 
ments, and these could not be congregated apart for 
Christian government until the new consolidation would 
be settled. Remaining, therefore, under the old govern- 
ment by elders until the new should be adjusted, they 
would afterward come out with their accustomed regi- 
men along, exchanging only the shadowy faith of the 
law for the beaming light of the gospel. If Jewish 
elders did not come with them. Christian elders would 
be appointed, as the history of first formation attested 
in sacred records. 

The great provisional officers of that primitive time 
— the apostolic ministry and the ministry of gifts — 
opened w^ith the keys in their hands, either individually 
or together as occasion required. When Philip received 
the many men and women whom he baptized at Samaria, 
as also the Ethiopian eunuch — when Paul was admitted 
by Ananias in the city of Damascus, although a society 
of believers existed there whose consent might have been 
obtained — there is no evidence that it was sought for or 
that the vote of any church was needed or desired in any 
of those admissions; and however transitory the pro- 
visional government may have been, it continued long 
enough to furnish principle and valid application of it 
for all time, especially manifest in ordination or indue- 



J UDICA TORIES. 447 

tion to sacred office. Wlien '' the seven " were elected by 
the people, they were inducted by the apostles. When 
Timothy was ordained, it was " with the laying on of 
the hands of the Presbytery ;" when he was instructed, 
as an officer, to commit the ministry to others, it was 
with his own discriminating judgment as to their ability 
and faithfulness. 2 Tim. ii. 2. When elders were to be 
ordained in Crete, Titus was instructed to do it ; and we 
know that Barnabas and Paul ordained elders in every 
church they organized. 

In evading the force of these examples it has been 
urged that tiie original term expressing ordination of 
elders in every church (Acts xiv. 23), and literally trans- 
lated ^' stretching out the hand,'' must primarily import 
the action of the people in giving their votes according 
to the Greek mode of popular suffrage. But, as already 
seen, the action expressed by the word was undoubtedly 
that of Barnabas and Paul, and we may add that, with 
an accusative following, the Greek etymon would make 
this word express also the gesture of even one or two in 
authority, designating merely the person or persons ap- 
pointed. In the parallel ordination of elders, (Tit. i. 5) 
another word, signifying simply authoritative appoint- 
ment is used for the transactions of Titus enjoined by the 
apostle. We claim a compounded action, as alleged in 
another place, for all due order in appointing church- 
officers — popular assent openly signified by the direct 
vote of either first hands immediately or second hands 
in representative agency, and the authoritative recog- 
nition by those already in office. God hath joined these 
two together, and man should not put them asunder. 
That election by the people may suffice to invest one 
with office in extreme cases of impossibility for the 



448 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

regular succession of office may be admitted because 
of the superior importance of truth to forms and of 
the apostolical stress on ability and faithfulness ill charg- 
ing Timothy in the matter of ordination. But this ex- 
ception only confirms the rule which makes the impo- 
sition of hands by official men an ordinary and relative 
necessity. A deposit so valuable as to require one to 
break the casket when the key is lost, in order to enjoy 
it, will require ordinarily on that account a more vigilant 
preservation of both casket and key. The pretensions 
of a prelate to communicate from the palm of his hand 
the secret virtue of an office which no suffrages of the 
faithful may help to confer cannot be worse at the one 
extreme than the radical independence of Priestly at 
the other, who would have only a vote of the people 
to inaugurate any man in the ministry of Christ. 

Brownism, at the birth of Independency, about the 
year 1580, challenged the laying on of hands as an idle 
superstition, and proposed the vote of the people in- 
stead as an adequate investment with office. John 
Robinson conducted the experiment with more success, 
and consigned the best of it to New England, and 
Joseph Priestly, a century later than Brown, came to 
try it in Pennsylvania, contending that rational, effective 
and complete ordination consisted only in the popular 
suffrage, and that the laying on of hands by those 
already in office belonged to the times of supernatural 
endowment, proper only in the conferring of a mi- 
raculous gift. Of course the injunction, " Lay hands 
suddenly on no man," was overlooked in this argu- 
ment, for it manifestly implies the exercise of discre- 
tion, whereas there could be no room for this if it were 
an immediate gift of the Holy Ghost making gesture 



JUDICATORIES. 449 

of man the instantaneous occasion of divine power. 
Moreover, the charisms of primitive time were bestowed 
in answer to prayer (Acts viii. 15) accompanying the 
laying on of hands, and we might therefore dispense 
with prayer also in ordination by a vote of the people 
if this were sufficient for a consecration to office. Still 
more, if this were all, an election by the people, recon- 
sidered and reversed, would logically divest the minister 
of all it had conferred and reduce the officer to layman 
until he is elected again by some otlier church in par- 
ticular. 

Such abasement could be prevented only by some 
conciliary seal representing a communion of churches 
with one another — a catholic scope of authority in some 
convention of ministers, distinct from and over the 
people, of any particular church. Hence the quick 
translation of Independency to Congregationalism in 
both hemispheres, and especially in America, and this 
restored to its logical place in ecclesia the imposition of 
hands by conventional action of delegates from different 
churches — Association in Massachusetts, and Consocia- 
tion in Connecticut. This advance on middle ground 
between prelacy and Presbytery is good and great, but, 
we think, is not complete, according to the Scriptures 
and to common sense, until delegates turn to representa- 
tives of the people in the fair and full sense of re[)re- 
seutation — the trusted light and conscience of chosen 
men to rule the people while advising them, promoting 
their best interest, whether it be for or against their own 
wishes at the time. That remarkable phrase which we 
have noticed in another connection (Heb. vi. 2) — an im- 
portant item iu the detail of tenets which are funda- 
mental in the Cliristian system — "the laying on of 



450 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

hands" — should still be held as a starting-point in 
Church progress while time endures. The commentary 
of Thomas Cartwright — that persecuted Puritan of the 
sixteenth century whom Whitgift hated and exiled — 
must be recalled and studied in its pertinency and exact- 
ness : ^'By imposition of hands the apostle meaneth no 
sacrament, in that whosoever believeth that there is not 
to be a ministry to teach and govern the Church over- 
throweth Christianity ; whereas, if confirmation be a 
sacrament, as it is not, yet a man holding the rest 
and denying the use of it might notwithstanding be 
saved/' 

The third act of power which officers alone may per- 
form is discipline, in the special sense of censure — the 
authoritative application of the divine word to offences. 
John XX. 23 : " Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are 
remitted ; and whosesoever sins ye retain they are re- 
tained." It is to Timothy that the apostle says, ''Against 
an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or 
three witnesses;" and to Titus, "A man that is an 
heretic, after the first and second admonition reject." 
These are injunctions for the exercise of discipline, and 
there is no instance of such injunction to the people. 
It has been argued against this position tliat our Lord 
in Matt, xviii. 17 directs an aggrieved party, when pri- 
vate conference has failed and ample proof has proved 
insufficient, to gain the offender in reconciliation to 'Hell 
it to the church," assuming this to mean an open pub- 
lication to the people who are members, and as such 
must be the court of ultimate adjudication. But this 
meaning of the term " church " must not be taken for 
granted ; there was no such a body of people in exist- 
ence when these words were spoken. The Jewish syna- 



JUDICATORIES. 451 

gogue was the visible Church as yet, and there a bench 
of elders administered discipline, and a tribunal of three 
elders was familiarly called " the Church " in its repre- 
sentative authority. 

Conceding, howev^er, that our Lord spoke proleptically 
in the utterance of these w^ords for the direction of the 
Christian Church that he was then founding, we see in 
the following context, while treating in the same breath 
of contention over offences, the memorable promise of 
his own official presence to countenance and bless the 
smallest plurality of judges that meet in his name : 
" For where two or three are gathered together in my 
name, there am I in the midst of them.'^ Past, present 
and future is the tenor of this judicial promise. It was 
familiar to the Jewish mind from the beginning to un- 
derstand elders to be meant when the body over which 
they presided was mentioned. In the thirty-fifth of 
Numbers it is said that the congregation of the city to 
which the manslayer and the avenger of blood belonged 
should judge between them, and yet we know from Deut. 
xvi., xviii., etc., that the elders did all that was there 
ascribed to the congregation ; and it w^as their preroga- 
tive alone (Josh. xx. 4), and the formula of " standing 
before the congregation'' in judgment is consistent with 
judgment by the elders only in expressing the publicity 
of the decision, if not the open process of trial also 
before the result is announced in public. Even when 
the "Church" is read in the distinctive Christian sense 
(Acts viii. 1) it would seem that her officers more than 
her people carried the name : "At that time there was a 
great })ersecution against the church which was at Jeru- 
salem : and they were all scattered abroad, throughout 
the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles;" 



452 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

" therefore, they that were scattered abroad went every- 
where preaching the word." 

Another plea for the exercise of discipline immedi- 
ately by the people themselves is the example of it in 
the case of that incestuous offender amone: the Co- 
rinthians. 1 Cor. v. ; 2 Cor. ii. The Corinthian people 
are blamed for not mourning over a flagitious crime ; 
all are commanded, when gathered together, to i)roceed 
against the transgressor, and their proceeding is declared 
to be judicial, and upon the evidence of repentance all 
are required to forgive and receive him. " Here, then,'^ 
said Cotton Mather, " is conclusive proof that the peo- 
ple are empowered to exercise discipline." Official 
authority, however, moved and directed the whole pro- 
ceeding in that case. This authority was to preside " in 
spirit" over all the process — the sentence, the excision 
and the restoration. Intermediate between the apostolic 
behest and the action required w^ere elders in official 
standing we may well presume from the planting every- 
where and ^' in every church " that apostolic history has 
mentioned. These were not superseded, but propelled, 
by the apostle's mandate in the line of their duty — not 
mentioned in particular, because they were identified so 
closely with the people, and especially at that time, when 
all the elders were immediate representatives of the peo- 
ple in ruling only, and the itinerating ministry of gifts 
were their preachers. 

Even admitting that the people in a body during the 
apostolic age did exercise discipline with their votes, and 
not their elders officially, it may have been expedient 
then, as it is not now, for all members of the church were 
made capable then, as they are not now, by the endow- 
ments of the Holy Ghost, according to the prophecy of 



J UDICA TORIES. 463 

Joel, shed with unparalleled eifusion upon her sons and 
daughters, her young men and old men, her servants 
and handmaidens. All were a people of gifts in the 
forming state of the Christian Church, having with them 
a special ministry of gifts commissioned without ordina- 
tion, and the transactions of that provisional period, 
being extraordinary and exceptional, are not binding 
examples in form, whatever they may be in principle. 
And the principle in the Corinthian case abides quite 
evidently now, when a pious people move their officers 
to duty ; so that rulers and ruled are made identical 
in their obedience to the word of God and exhortation 
of his ministers. 

There is nothing whatever in that example of the 
Corinthian church to justify the people now in making 
a tribunal of themselves without adjudicating elders 
over them in the trial of offences. That all are blamed 
for not mourning over the offence is no evidence that all 
were to vote in the exercise of punishment, any more 
than universal sorrow among the people of a Presby- 
terian church over the apostasy or scandal of a member 
is evidence that all the people have like authority in 
judging and inflicting censure. The effect of such 
compunction is to remove the offence, not by a popular 
vote of ejection, but by stirring up the office-bearers to 
do their duty in the premises. If we are to take the 
case out of the miraculous category in which the sinner 
was delivered over to Satan for the destruction of the 
flesh, we must try it by the ordinary principles of inter- 
pretation, according to which a synthetic language never 
discriminates nicely between the principal and the agent, 
the body and its instruments. " If thy brother," says 
Moses, "tlie son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy 



454 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

daughter, or the wife of thy bosom entice thee secretly, 
saying. Let us go and serve other gods, thou shalt not 
consent to him, nor hearken to him; neither shall thine 
eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou 
conceal him, but thou shalt surely kill him.^' Deut. xiii. 
6. Who would understand by this injunction that the 
Israelites at large were authorized promiscuously to put 
the incipient idolater to death without being tried and 
condemned by the judges appointed ? How often were 
the ancient Hebrews condemned as a people for the mal- 
administration of justice ! while it is manifest that the 
rulers, and not the people, were the immediate trans- 
gressors. And thus we might go on indefinitely to show 
how the people and their governors are identified with 
each other nominally as well as morally, and historically, 
though not officially, by representation at the smallest 
council of the Church as well as at the largest; the 
church unit and the Church multiplied ecclesiastically 
one, and a distinct and double honor within awarded to 
the elders that rule well, and especially those that labor 
in the word and teaching. The purest democracy is 
republican both in Church and in State, and its con- 
sciousness of this begins at the first conventicle formed, 
where coequal and independent men unite to designate 
" some,'' and not all, to preside or speak or lead in the 
exercise of any conventional force, legislative, executive 
or judicial. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 

HAYING seen the necessity of a judicial bench in 
each particular church, constituted of representa- 
tives of the people rather than of the people themselves, 
we are next to inquire about the extent of this repre- 
sentation and whether it may itself be represented in 
catholic enlargement of space and comprehensive power. 
Each particular church must be independent of every 
other if the assembled members, official and unofficial, 
must have equal power to pass and declare authoritative 
acts in discipline and rule, because an integer of this 
kind cannot be extended. Definite extension must be 
arbitrary and accidental, and indefinite extension im- 
possible. One congregation may touch another on its 
confines with mechanical action and artificial corre- 
spondence, but the corporeity of life in Christ is without 
live articulation in such a system, and Catholicism is 
addition more than development, imaginative more than 
actual and visible. The visible Church was made for 
expansion ; the body of Christ on earth was born for 
growth and development, which assuredly does not con- 
sist in mere aggregation of equal and similar parts, like 
added to like, one little visibility after another, complete 
in itself and walled uj) by its own peculiar covenant 
until the whole promised land is overspread with brist- 
ling parapets like that anterior Palestine which Israel 

455 



456 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

came to conquer. The ultimate civilization must have 
a central Jerusalem. 

When it is fairly settled that the primary court is 
representative in the constitution of its Session, we are 
to consider how much more a consolidated rather than a 
confederated system of indefinitely wider extent should 
be constructed. As the suffrage of the people must, of 
course, become less immediate and more impracticable as 
the whole body is enlarged, so the representatives of the 
people increase in number until they are too many for 
the convenient exercise of power with due deliberation 
and becoming order. The contraction which is neces- 
sary then does not require a well-compacted system to 
return in its progress to first principles or first hands for 
a better fitness to rule. It is by no means too remote 
from the people that their immediate representatives 
should be themselves represented, and that the second 
representation also should be contracted to another and 
another in higher judicatories or commissions for the 
sake of order, unity and effectiveness. Selection at 
the very top of this pyramidal structure stands all the 
more firmly on the broad basis of popular suffrage Avhere 
it rests, and it is the unrest of anarchy itself, and change 
of the building to a babel which must run back to the 
people at every step of the gradation. When Christ is 
" Head,'^ elementary power in his people derived from 
him ascends with the building, and is always implied in 
representative workmen who are " some " of themselves 
and hold office as a public trust : " The whole body fitly 
joined together and compacted by that which every 
joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in 
the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body 
unto the edifying of itself in love.'' 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 457 

Beyond a particular church with its consistory of 
officers, the gradations whicli intervene between it and 
the Plead iire called in our system the Presbytery, 
the Synod and the General Assembly. These may be 
defined as higher and remoter tribunals which hold 
jurisdiction over inferior judicatories for the purpose 
of yearly review, trying appeals and deciding on ques- 
tions of general interest in doctrine and discipline. 
This decision is judicial, not advisory, unless it be so 
expressed in its letter, and obligatory as the sound inter- 
pretation and application of law — the law of Christ. 
We hold this gradation of courts in the Church to be 
necessary for the unity, purity, authority, faithfulness 
and moral power of the visible Church as required by 
her Head. 

1. The u.nity of the visible Church must have these 
courts of review as a reasonable safety. That her great 
Founder designed her to be one in outward aspect as 
well as inward spirit is evident from every similitude 
used by him and his apostles to explain her nature. 
In the thirteenth chapter of Matthew she is set forth 
as a kingdom, implying, of course, that in her visible 
organization and operations there should be the suc- 
cessive subordinations through which the unity of sover- 
eign behests may be conveyed to the multiplicity of sub- 
jects. In the eleventh chapter of Romans we have the 
emblem of an olive tree to represent the same thing. 
From this good olive the Jews are cut off at present, 
and the Gentiles, that belonged to a wild olive tree, are 
grafted in. This, of course, indicates a visible Church 
relation made and unmade. And, again, in 1 Cor. xii. 
the Church is compared to a living human body, having 
various members united in one visible person : " For, as 



458 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

the body is one, and hath many members, and all the 
members of that one body, being many, are one body : 
so also is Christ." And as Christ, the Head, is a visible 
person — " God manifest in the flesh " — so also must this 
oneness be visible for a witness to the world that " there 
is one Mediator between God and man." 

Evading the force of these inspired analogies, which in- 
dicate unity of some sort as characteristic of a true Church, 
it has been argued that some other kind of unity than 
external and ecclesiastical is intended. Tliere is invisible 
unity, in which all that believe on Christ are connected 
with one another, as they are with the common Head, by 
invisible bonds. There is also doctrinal unity, in which 
all that hold the same great principles of faith and for- 
mulas of doctrine are one without any visible organiza- 
tion to watch and constrain adherence. And there is 
particular unity, in which the members of a particular 
church and one congregation are so harmoniously united 
among themselves as to represent, by a specimen or pict- 
ure, that uuiv^ersal oneness which the Mediator has prom- 
ised to the future glory of the Church rather than or- 
dained as the pattern of her present conformation. 

But none of these conceptions will answer the demand 
of our proof-texts or the dictates of common sense. The 
oliv^e tree, for example, cannot represent invisible unity 
alone, for the casting oflP of the Jews cannot mean the 
reprobation of their souls, but the visible separation of 
their Church-State from legitimate communion with a 
true visible Church of the New Testament. Besides, 
the fancied unity which is all invisible, tried by the test 
of our scriptural metaphor, must upset the perseverance 
of the saints individually ; for if there be such a whole- 
sale and collective excision of the invisible and spiritual 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 459 

bonds, iiuHvidaal saints must be included in the whole, 
and of course be liable to a final apostasy. The rage of 
generalization at the present day, which eliminates from 
the essential and ultimate idea of the Church all need 
or thouo'lit of organization to be seen, must be cautioned 
against heresy, which will creep under when the Church 
of Christ is sublimated so beyond the conditions of re- 
deemed humanity. Body as well as spirit has been 
redeemed. As each ransomed individual is visible as 
well as invisible, and the Logos himself wears for 
ever body and soul upon hrm, so does the Church he 
governs. "He is the Head of the body the Church." 
Body (acofia) without organization is absurdity in terms. 

Nor will this invisible unity answer the emblem of a 
human body in 1 Cor. xii. There the apostle speaks of 
diversified gifts, which belonged to the different members 
then extant and appearing, palpable as the human body 
itself. But we know from the words of our Lord him- 
self that these same gifts might then and afterward be 
exercised, without any such invisible union to the Head, 
by a living faith : '' Many shall say unto me, in that day, 
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in 
thy name have cast out devils? ... I never knew you ; 
depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Matt. vii. 22, 23. 
Nor will it answer the emblem of a kingdom (Matt, xiii.), 
for there is visible and invisible mixture there. It is 
a field sown w^ith tares as well as with wheat, and 
left in this mingled condition till the final harvest at 
the end of the world. Surely, the figure means a 
visible Church-State, and of course external unity in 
the structure. 

Neither will doctrinal unity alone suffice for the inti- 
mations of Scripture, many particular churches adopting, 



460 CHURCH GOVEIINMENT. 

one after aDother, the same creed and similar covenants. 
Sameness is not unity at all in a governmental sense or 
any proper sense of convergence. A platform without 
any joint formality of declaration and conventional au- 
thority enforcing adhesion is but a signal for multiplied 
varieties and interminable dissent. Cambridge, Boston, 
Saybrook, are not exceptions. Still more obviously un- 
tenable is the hypothesis of particular unity, the harmony 
of members in one little or local cono^reo-ation as a mirror 
where only we are to behold that magnificent oneness 
which inspired prophecy predicts and inspired poetry 
has sung. On this plan the grace of brotherly love 
is just as complete in a church of thirty as in one of 
three hundred members; and the feud which would 
throw a prominent church into fragments abounds only 
in the spirit of this unity, giving us many unities for 
one, thus multiplying the mirrors in which the charity 
of Christendom is reflected. We might as well say that 
the household of a single family, or even that an indi- 
vidual believer, with the conflicting laws within him 
between his members and his mind subordinated by the 
grace of God, making him " the ecclesiastical unit," is an 
adequate realization of Christian unity in the world ; for 
in Eph. iv. 13 the whole mystical body of Christ is de- 
nominated "a perfect man.'' Unity cannot exist with- 
out numbers. 

If, then, the unity which God requires of the Church 
on earth be not merely invisible, doctrinal or particular, 
we are constrained to believe that a visible co-operation 
of diversities to evangelize the world, if not an organized 
compactness in any one form, is the destiny of Christian 
work and the Christian Church for all time and con- 
summation. The instinct of Puritanism has ever been 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 461 

this way, notwithstanding the weakness with which 
it crumbles within. Missions, education, higher and 
lower and wider progress of reformation, loyalty of 
patriotism, refinement of morals, attest the excellence 
of her planting. But in all this the Puritans are glori- 
ous by going hand in hand with other Christians, and 
such co-operation is always more effective in proportion 
to the completeness of organization in the several constit- 
uencies apart which combine to accomplish one great end. 
It is no valid objection to the plea for confederated 
unity in form to allege that it has never yet existed 
through the centuries of Christian history as a real 
and absolute Catholicism, and, owing to the diversified 
condition of men as they are separated by climate, char- 
acter and government, will never be practicable. There 
is nothing in the nature of ecclesiastical polity when 
it is made fairly representative, nothing in sectarian 
bigotry when subdued by divine grace in the life, and 
certainly nothing in the promises of the gospel and the 
predicted glory of the Saviour's kingdom, to forbid an 
expansion of such unity, until it be perfectly ecumenical. 
The catholic spirit of Christianity must surely be equal 
to the influence of that civilization she produces and 
sustains. A congress of all nations might be had, and 
we have seen wuthin the century how practicable it is 
for mighty communities that are jealous of one another, 
and rivals in diplomacy to concert and consummate 
political projects which involve the destinies of half the 
globe; and can we believe that the Church of Christ — 
*' the fulness of Him w^ho filleth all in all '^ — holding so 
intimately the common Head in heaven, must be less 
able to manage, by a common conference, the visible 
interests of that kingdom which can never be moved? 



462 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

Admitting, however, that such visible unity cannot 
be ecumenical, must we, therefore, conclude that it 
should never be national, or even provincial ? As well 
might we say that, because all nations cannot now unite 
in one form of supreme superintendence, therefore there 
should be no distinct nationality or confederate govern- 
ment on earth. Because the Church cannot have a 
general assembly to represent the whole earth in eccle- 
siastical synod, therefore we should be divided into as 
many parts as there are congregations, is a lame con- 
clusion — as much as to say that because the secular 
speculation of men cannot have a concordat to control 
the world with paramount power every body politic 
should be cut up into as many principalities as there are 
cities, counties or corporations of autonomy. 

II. The purity of the Church demands these courts 
of review. The errors of a congregation are more bale- 
ful than those of an individual in proportion to the 
strength which combination or aggregation gives to any 
contagious evil ; and witliout some bond of union wider 
than that of a particular church there would be no sanc- 
tion for truth and holiness beyond the accident of a 
majority in one congregation. Let the moiety of an 
independent church be increased by a single vote, and 
its whole character is changed. The faithful testimony 
of a remnant almost equal to half of the whole body is 
overborne and suppressed. The power which yesterday 
ruled for Christ to-day rebels against him. Discipline 
is trodden down or turns its edge against the conserva- 
tors of truth and order. Within the neighborhood 
of this oppressed minority may be large bodies of true 
and faithful men whose affinity would secure an over- 
whelming force upon the side of truth and right if it 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 463 

could only be one in form as well as in fact ; but the 
accidental erection of a separate house for worship is 
allowed to sever the adherence of a protesting few even 
from the prevailing soundness of a vicinage in the body 
of Christ, and they must either take the leaven of a 
tainted lump or separate, with the apparent evils and 
the real disabilities of schism. We must, therefore, 
have an organization, to discipline congregations as well 
as individuals, and to arraign majorities no less than 
minorities for deflection from righteousness and abuse 
of powder. 

Opposed to the safeguards which despotism itself 
might place around the rights of individuals will be 
the tyranny of masses when there is no redress of appeal. 
The popular decision, subject to a thousand influences 
of a fitful and partial nature, is irreversible save by the 
whims of its own fluctuation. Judicatories in gradation 
are the remedy. One appeal or complaint after another, 
each one conducting the aggrieved to a tribunal more 
enlarged, disinterested and free from local influences 
which had prejudiced his cause, will be within the reach 
of every oppressed or neglected member. To this privi- 
lege of appeal, which opposes a majority of the whole 
and better informed to the majorities of a petty and 
local nature, it is no valid (>bjection to say that any 
council may err, that the whole lump may be leavened 
and the general majority itself may be despotic and 
iniquitous. The probabilities of moral calculation are 
all the other way, according to Scripture and reason — so 
much that the common wisdom of men all the world 
over, and in all ages, when balancing the civil power to 
which we are subject, finds the ascending steps of resort 
to courts of larger representation, if not number also, to 



464 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

be the only refuge and the last vindication hoped for in 
the present life. Corruption of integrity is always local 
before it is general, and even when it is general there is 
hope for the refugee in flying from passion and preju- 
dice even if he cannot entirely avoid pollution on the 
way or at the end. So it is in every department of 
judicial or executive power. 

But how much more security have we for the exercise 
of justice in the visible Church, where Christ reigns by 
the inhabitation of his Spirit as the Spirit of ^' power 
and of love and of a sound mind " — where every par- 
ticular church, as well as every particular bench, in the 
gradation of Session, Presbytery and Synod, has its own 
individuality in the distribution of his gifts and influ- 
ences, and the aggregate expression of all will most 
likely pronounce fairly the mind of Him who is '^ Judge 
of all " ! Facts in church history can illustrate this 
averment. Within the present century the independent 
churches of New England and the Presbyterian Church 
of Ireland have been tried alike by the invasion of 
Socinian heresy. In both countries it began sporadi- 
cally, in particular churches, by the address of a ration- 
alistic or speculating teacher, winning over, usually, a 
majority of the parish. But, long since, the Irish 
Church was purged of this evil by the strong authority 
of her highest judicatory, while the American churches 
tainted with this error, and without any appellate juris- 
diction over them, have remained, for the most part, in 
hopeless perversion. 

We do not shun here to notice how Synods or coun- 
cils have been reproached for tyranny in every age, and 
how much modern historians charge them with subvert- 
ing the liberties of the people and surrendering power 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 465 

to the establishment of hierarchical usurpations. It is 
enough to assert, as we pass, that Synods never proved 
to be despotic or subservient to despotism until they 
were dismantled in form and deprived of the popular 
element, the representatives of the people, ruling elders 
in their quorum, as the primitive organizations had 
passed away. When the people ceased to be fairly repre- 
sented in councils, and these became assemblies of clergy 
alone, and such ecclesiastics imagined themselves a priest- 
hood in the old Levitical sense, and three orders instead 
of one, then only did the Church become despotic in all 
her Synods, and of course her authorities in every form, 
until even the right of private judgment in her member- 
ship was withdrawn from the people. 

It is a fact which all men may now see, and which 
all historians should bring to the front, since mediaeval 
apostasy has been detected and its darkness rifted in 
every cloud, that assemblies which incorporate repre- 
sentatives of the people, both mediate and immediate, 
ministers and elders, are the bulwark of popular free- 
dom and the proper equality of men. Systems opposed to 
this reformation are not much disposed to hold councils 
at all in the Church. There was no general council called 
in the Roman Catholic Church for some three hundred 
years after the Council of Trent, and it has been only in 
the agony of a crisis in which temporal power is being 
wrested from the papal grasp or some dogma of spiritual 
supremacy is in danger of being lost that such councils 
have been summoned in this generation; and when as- 
sembled, tlie world knows, it has been only to define and 
to register what despotism had already prepared and de- 
termined. So it is with a hierarchy in the Church 
of England, whose " Convocation,'^ though composed of 

30 



466 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

ecclesiastics, can hardly be accounted ecclesiastical at all 
in the proper business of church-power. For some two 
hundred years it has convened only to be prorogued. It 
began by the mandate of a civil monarch, Edward I., 
"for the sake of obtaining subsidies from the clerical 
body." Its main business was internal taxation ; and 
when the power of taxing themselves was withdrawn 
in 1644, the privilege of voting for "knights of the 
shire" was granted instead. The transported hierarchy 
of England to this country has wisely and nobly made 
their Convocation — here called Convention — more spir- 
itual in its object and exercises and more conformed to 
the surroundings of republican freedom. The lay ele- 
ment is delegated here to the spiritual assembly, and the 
result is seen to be a decided amelioration even of an 
exclusive arrogancy which otherwise coukl have taken 
little or no root in American soil. 

III. Investiture of the ministry must be reviewed by 
authorities over both minister and people. Acknowl- 
edged principles of ordination require superior judica- 
tories to watch and guard them. Suffrage of the people 
must be recognized and approved by those who preside 
and judge of their votes, and not by themselves alone 
as both voters and judges. Combined with the popular 
element must be an official element, according to a rela- 
tive necessity of order through all ages; and this combi- 
nation must be scrutinized and reported with wider com- 
pass to the great community of believers by a larger 
representation than the party of ordainers, to indicate 
that each intrant of the ministry belongs to the whole 
visible Church as well as to the particular one where he 
has been authenticated. And when the people have 
chosen a pastor from those who make trial of their 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION, 467 

gifts before them or before others of the Church to 
certify their competency in good report, there is to be 
in Congregationalism itself at the present day resort to 
a ministry outside of the congregation to solemnize the 
ceremony of induction to the charge. Of course the 
officers gathered for this duty from the vicinage or else- 
where will exercise their function at discretion, and not 
as a task imposed merely ; but such discretion is a virtual 
review and control of what the particular church has 
done in these premises. The congregation, by taking 
their guides from the hands of overseers in the neighbor- 
hood summoned or invited to decide on his fitness, do 
submit their own most important action to an authorita- 
tive revision by another judicatory, no matter what its 
name, which is higher in the reference and not responsi- 
ble to them for its action. 

IV. The guaranty of ministerial faithfulness demands 
a judicatory higher than that of any one congregation, 
else the people may venture to arraign their own pastor 
and become party, witness and judge themselves; which 
is manifestly inconsistent with eternal justice and all the 
ordinary principles of judicial right and safety. He 
must be arraigned at a higher court and tried by his 
own peers, and to receive and adjudicate the popular 
impeachment is to hold jurisdiction over the people, they 
having already judged enough by making accusation. 
There is no possible equity which is not accidental in the 
case without process before another tribunal, and still 
another, it may be, for escape from passion and preju- 
dice, which are always the worse as they are pent in the 
confines of one locality. Hence it is that consistency 
itself between the offended people and their offending 
minister among independent churches will so often let 



468 CHURCH GOVERN.UENT. 

the latter go without attempting ccu.sure at all, because 
it is impracticable in such a system, having no appellate 
sanction to seek or to see. The common remedy against 
unfaithfulness, or even malfeasance, in office must l>e the 
mere dissolution of a contract between minister and peo- 
ple, which obviously fails to attain the ends of discipline 
if he be unworthy, and must be cruel injustice to him if 
he be worthy. Dilemma of this kind was surely not seen 
by the apostle John while peering into the Apocalyptic 
future of the Church and charging " the angels of the 
seven churches in Asia." The only reprehension he 
uttered in writing to any of them was for the positive 
neglect of discipline ; and laxity in this, for want of an 
adequate and authorized tribunal to enforce it, does not 
seem to have occurred to his ken at all in any vision. 
Rev. ii. Vexatious alternative is death to any church, 
moreover, and the hano^ino^ balance must be turned bv 
some casting vote which can be given only by the hand 
of a presiding superior. 

V. The moral power of the Church on earth should 
have judicatories in gradation as courts of review. Even 
if a multitude of particular churches independent of one 
another could unite upon the same platform of faith and 
the same testimony against error, one after another, also, 
with unbroken uniformity, how feeble in moral force 
would be the numeration compared with the energy 
of one high representative assembly deciding, not by 
the speech of a solitary agent who could persuade one 
small meeting after another without being confronted 
with any rival and opposite opinions, but by the vote 
of deliberative wisdom, acting under the great respon- 
sibility of consultation for the whole body of Christ ! 
There is all the disadvantage of dispersion, obscurity 



JUDWATOHIES IN GRADATION. 469 

and accident in the one case, and all the advanta<^e of 
considerate, conspicuous and concentrated wisdom in the 
other. And, as a matter of fact, the world is but little 
impressed with testimony in piecemeal compared with 
what is pronounced in collective capacity. In all other 
kinds of organization primary bodies of men seek to 
converge their power in some general centre of more 
extended representation ; and why should this dictate 
of instinct and reflection alike have no adequate scope 
in shaping the visible Church? 

It is incomparably more important foi* the Church 
than for the State, in exercising its fair moral force, to 
have a collective expression of its wisdom and as nearly 
total as can be realized in one representation, for the 
obvious reason that it is really one body in its connection 
with a common Head. The nation comes from multi- 
plicity of membership built upon constituencies resting 
on diversities which may have but little or no com- 
munity of social life, and a fraction of which may be- 
come another nation or body politic in the fullest mean- 
ing of nationality. An island as well as a continent 
may suffice in geographical boundary to make it com- 
plete in all the attributes as well as symbols of sover- 
eignty, but not so the Church : she comes from unity 
and rests on the foundation of prophets and apostles, 
Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone, and 
every turn of metaphor in revelation makes him the 
fountain of her life, her influence, her authority, her 
extension. Out of his fulness, the Godhead bodily, we 
all receive, individuals and denominations called by his 
name, grace for grace, until we are made complete in 
him. 

The Church is therefore a dismembered body and a 



470 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

defective community just in proportion as there is left 
out of her visible organization any true members of 
Christ. Her true visibility is not a fence nor a crucible, 
nor yet a floodgate. More like a tabernacle it is, or 
ought to be — movable and not destructible, choice and 
not exclusive, open to all in the outer court, and this not 
to be trampled down at the rush and dust of concourse. 
It belongs to the people in common, but is to be handled, 
in moving, erecting and disparting, only by the divinely 
chosen tribe in waiting : " When the tabernacle setteth 
forward, the Levites shall take it down : and when the 
tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up." 
This delineation by a figure may describe, but cannot, of 
course, define, the visibility of Church organization, 
which baffles outline of the whole, as much as invisi- 
bility does the numbering of spiritual varieties. But 
we see that " all have not the same office." Every in- 
dividual apart, every family apart, every particular 
church apart, every local consociation, every general 
association or conference, apart, every world-wide de- 
nomination apart, has its own individuality, its own 
peculiar unction, its main part to contribute, in the 
action of the whole body, or it lacks the just moral 
force of Christ on earth. If "to every one of us grace 
is given, according to the measure of the gift of Christ," 
and it is so that every individual soul among the re- 
deemed has its own form and force and symmetry of 
Christian character, then must there be abatement in 
the power of the whole when there is formal separation 
and division in its visible action upon earth without 
formal co-operation. 

Denominations in the same country, educated and 
evangelical, with like immunities and social influence 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 471 

and missionary zeal, are conspicuously distinguished for 
different characters in the body of Christ. Say that the 
Presbyterian Church distinctively carries the banner of 
truth ; the Congregational Church, ^the banner of lib- 
erty ; the Protestant Episcopal, that of order ; the Bap- 
tist, that of ordinances ; and the Methodist, that of 
gospel aggression. The full and perfect ideal of Christ 
incarnate which the visible Church is required to express 
will be found in the combination and interfusion of all 
these elements in due proportion. The visible encase- 
ment of them in one grand '^ representation of all the 
churches'' — which is not impossible, as it defines our 
General Assembly, comprising an equal number of di- 
versities that are churchly — would be oneness enough to 
win the w^orld to Christ and seem to be a second coming 
of his person ; and until it is attained let us anticipate 
the coming by rounding the completeness of such assem- 
blage and interfusion among ourselves of each denom- 
ination concerned. And the highest and best altitude 
for observation with a view to the ultimate unity of all 
is reached by ascending the grades of representation to 
the summit of Presbytery, and there looking for the Son 
of man to come in his kingdom. 

SCRIPTURALNESS OF JUDICATORIES IN GrADATIOX. 

Preliminary to the more direct evidence that courts 
of review are divinely sanctioned is one inquiry, at 
least, respecting the numbers gathered, especially at 
Jerusalem, in the planting of the Christian Church there 
and elsewhere. It is clear that many more belonged to 
that church than could be connected in one and the same 
congregation for the purposes of a particular church, 
whether worship or discipline. This being evinced, 



472 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

whatever of unity in the way of ecclesiastical procedure 
the sacred narrative reveals will go to establish the prin- 
ciple of one superintendence over different churches. 

Without extending our inquiries to Antioch, Epliesus 
and Corinth, where we might obtain similar illustration, 
though less unquestionable, we may be satisfied with 
grouping the facts on record respecting the formation 
at Jerusalem. Before our Lord had finished his work 
there must have been many thousands about Jerusalem 
openly or secretly attached to his cause. Of the minis- 
ters only who had waited on his instruction, and whom 
he sent forth, it was said by their foes that the world 
had gone after him. After all the offence of his cruci- 
fixion, and the defection and dispei^ion it occasioned, 
there must have been five hundred, at least, adhering at 
his resurrection. To this number three thousand were 
added on the day of Pentecost. It is vain to allege that 
these conversions occurred among: the foreig^u Jews or 
strangers who were merely on a visit for the festive 
occasion and formed no portion of the settled inhabi- 
tants. The Israelites generally who belonged to the 
Dispersion did not attend the festivals at Jerusalem 
ordinarily, and the Jews occasionally resorting could 
not have made the multitude whom Peter addressed, 
and whom he charged as participants in the murder of 
Jesus. He "lifted up his voice '^ and called them dwell- 
ers at Jerusalem, and not sojourners merely — a different 
word in the • original. Even if they had been born 
abroad, they were now citizens there, attracted by the 
religious advantages of that metropolis : " There were 
dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men out of every 
nation under heaven." Acts ii. 5. 

But, large as the first accession was, under apostolic 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 473 

preaching an increase continued in the same })roportion : 
^' The Lord added daily to the church of such as should 
be saved/^ After another sermon by Peter (Acts iv.), 
we are told, many of them who heard tiie word be- 
lieved, and the number of the men was about five thou- 
sand. How many more in the families of the men were 
added we may well conjecture from the proportion of 
women who waited for the coming of Messiah and sig- 
nalized their prompt and persevering faith when it was 
the very darkest hour and most perilous adventure to 
believe. But, taking the men alone, we have now at 
least eight thousand five hundred members in tlie church 
at Jerusalem. Yet after all this we are told that multi- 
tudes both of men and women were added by the mira- 
cle at the death of Ananias and Sapphira, and still 
afterward, we read, the word of God increased and the 
number of disciples multiplied greatly, and a great 
company of the priests were obedient unto the faith. 
And how many of the people must have gone with this 
leading of their priests may be inferred from the lan- 
guage of their enemies, who, speaking of the apostles, 
said, " They are filling Jerusalem with their doctrine,'' 
Jerusalem being at that time the most populous city 
in the world, according to Josephus. 

Here, however, it is objected that these gathering 
thousands must have been scattered away from the city 
by persecution which raged at the death of Stephen 
(Acts viii.), and consequently we have no data for be- 
lieving that more were left at Jerusalem than were suffi- 
cient for a single congregation and a particular church. 
But we answer — (1) That there is no evidence of that 
persecution being continued beyond a single day. The 
sacred historian Luke is remarkably precise in the use 



474 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

of words expressing time. When the duration is in- 
definite or uncertain, he says " about ^' that time. But 
here he is exact, saying " at that time '' when " Saul was 
consenting to the death " of Stephen {kv ixecurj zf^ i^fiifja), 
as if the sudden violence of a mob instigated by one 
wishiog to ^'make havoc of the church'^ was the nature 
of that pei'secution. (2) It has been noticed previously 
that the scattered ones of the occasion were probably 
ministers of gifts made prominent and obnoxious by the 
notability of their preaching : " They went everywhere 
preaching the word.^' ver. 4. (3) The original word 
for " scattered ^' here means voluntary as well as violent 
dispersion, for which the Greek has another term dis- 
tinctly, and in this place it seems to express precisely 
the obedience of ministers to their Master's bidding : 
" When they persecute you in one city, flee ye to an- 
other." (4) The Jews who constituted the persecuting 
mob had no power at the time to inflict the punishment 
of death, and the murder of Stephen was refractory 
oflence to the Roman as well as cruel intolerance to the 
Christian. For alleged offence against their own law 
they might incarcerate only, at the worst ; but all the 
prisons of Jerusalem could not then contain the multi- 
tudinous converts of Christianity. Devout men re- 
mained free to carry Stephen to his burial. 

We are told after this and the persecution by Herod 
that " the word of God grew and multiplied,'' and such 
was its triumph that the apostle James said to Paul at 
Jerusalem, ^'Thou seest, brother, how many thousands 
of Jews there are which believe," in corresponding reply 
to the recital of success among the Gentiles. The em- 
phasis of " thousands " here is myriads in the original — 
a number indefinitely large, and never less than ten 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 475 

thousand — wherever it is used elsewhere iu the New 
Testameut. Even the number of ministers to be noticed 
in Jerusalem as identified with that locality must indi- 
cate indefinite myriads of disciples apparently there. 
The body of apostles engaged in preaching so busily as 
not to have time for distribution of alms to the poor 
must have had more audience collectively than the 
largest house in Christendom at this day could accom- 
modate with room. Added to apostles must have been 
a large number of gifted ministers — prophets, evangel- 
ists and elders, including, as some conjecture well, the 
whole seventy whom our Lord had sent forth to usher 
his own ministry in Judea. That a multitude of such 
preachers, numbering a hundred at the lowest calcula- 
tion, should be confined, with all their missionary ardor, 
to one congregation is utterly incredible. The same in- 
ference is made more decidedly when considering the 
many languages spoken in their ministrations. Devout 
men of Parthia, Media, Elam, Mesopotamia, Cappa- 
docia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia and the parts 
of Libya and about Cyrene, and also of Rome, Crete 
and Arabia, heard in their own language the won- 
derful works of God. No one dialect was ever known 
to be intelligible to such diversity of auditors, and no 
miracle of tongues had been wrought if the preaching 
there and then were done through interpreters. 

These facts alone suffice to prove that the church at 
Jerusalem must have been more than one congregation 
meeting in one place, hearing one preacher at a time, 
organized in one body of all the people discipled for 
the exercise of worship, discipline or deliberation on 
questions of moment in relation to Christian doctrine, 
polity or life, even if, instead of private and upper 



476 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

chambers to meet in, they had the space of a camp- 
meeting for an area of sacred transactions. Wlien we 
read in Acts ii. 41-47 that *'all who believed were 
together, and had all things in common," we cannot 
understand more than a community visible in mutual 
intercourse of intimacy and sympathy and temporal 
benefaction. When we read in Acts iii. 11 about "all" 
the people running together in " Solomon's porch," and 
" all " being there with one accord, we see that this noun 
of multitude means only a promiscuous resort of the peo- 
ple to the apostles there to see and hear the wonders 
wrought by them, the " one accord " being among the 
apostles themselves, without the slightest indication that 
such assemblage was churchly in its meaning or signif- 
icance. 

Nor is there any force in the objection that they were 
all in one place to elect deacons at the direction of the 
apostles (Acts vi.); for, besides the fact that this was 
done while the community was comparatively small, it 
was not necessary that electors should signify their choice 
in one spot, or that they are to be considered one par- 
ticular church in doing so, any more than the meeting 
of men from diiferent villages at the same election pre- 
cinct in the civil commonwealth proves them to belong 
to one ward or corporation. It is not necessary to the 
conception of diiferent particular churches in one city 
that each one should have its own board of deacons. 
If the whole Christian Church existed for a time 
before the reconstruction of a diaconate by the apostles, 
we can easily see how one board might serve a number 
of particular churches in one city, as for a time in 
modern history at Geneva, Edinburgh and Glasgow. 

In view of pertinacious and minute objections like these 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 477 

on the part of Iudej)eiulency, it may well occasion sur- 
prise that able and distinguished apologists for Chris- 
tianity should be willing to surrender at any point of 
divergence from historic churches one of our strongest 
defences against infidelity. The rapidity with which the 
gospel, in its first promulgatiou, triumphed over prejudice 
and pride, ignorance and learning, power and multitudes, 
in winning converts to Christ, is a chief bulwark on 
earth for him and his cause, which must be greatly im- 
paired by the scanty planting at Jerusalem, where it 
began, if but one congregation there could be made out 
for a purpose after twenty years of renowned success in 
gathering members by the labor of apostles, and of scores 
of ministers besides, actuated by the ordinary and extra- 
ordinary power of the Holy Ghost in their preaching, 
polity and discipline. 

The evidence being irresistible that the church in 
Jerusalem was too numerous to constitute but one par- 
ticular church for the purposes of worship in one house 
and government by the joint and immediate voting of 
the people, we come to see that unity both in worship 
and in government must have been by representation 
organized in office and assembly of officers. Hence the 
significant singular number, " church,^' invariably used, 
to denominate the gathering myriads evangelized in that 
great city. We never see mentioned the "churches'' in 
Jerusalem, but nine times we read of the " church," and 
twice the " whole church," there. This means an organ- 
ized unification. No mere fraternization for counsel or 
advice would thus be denominated invariably as an unit. 
No convocation of all the people could have made the 
record which inspired history has transmitted of harmo- 
nious transaction and instant despatch that characterize 



478 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

in every age the bench of a court or the conventicle of 
choice representatives. No association or consociation 
of independent churches would ever drop the plural 
from rolls of their constituency. The convergence of 
democracy in one title must always make it represen- 
tative. 

Happily, the inference we make from the facts already 
cited has been confirmed and illustrated by the example 
of a synod or council held at Jerusalem and recorded by 
the highest of all authority in the ministration of the 
Spirit. It is found in Acts, fifteenth chapter. This 
exceedingly valuable and suggestive record furnishes 
the great principle of gradation in judicatories as well 
as their constitution by representatives of the people; 
and it should be carefully premised that the principle is 
all we need to consider in this contention. The ratio of 
representation must always be naturally and historically 
a changeable quantity; it could not be adjusted for all 
places and times to come in the forming state of the 
Church. And even the constituents of the judicatory 
itself may have been somewhat irregular in the excited 
and tumultuous agitations of the primitive age. "Breth- 
ren " without office or special appointment may have 
pressed into the deliberating assembly to speak and to 
vote also while as yet no rules had been formulated to 
discriminate the proper commission of members or the 
method of proceeding. Especially when we consider 
the intensely interesting subject for which mainly the 
assembly was convoked, the singular diffusion of gifts 
among unofficial church-members, and the peculiar 
blending of all believers with their teachers in the 
character of '^ a royal priesthood," which that initial 
age exhibited, we cannot wonder if other elements 



JUDICATOniES IN GRADATION. 479 

mingled with '^apostles and elders" in the quorum 
and the vote of the first General Assembly held at 
Jerusalem. 

But even this natural explanation of the term " breth- 
ren," occurring once in the phrases which enumerate the 
components of that assembly, should not be reckoned ex- 
ceptional irregularity at all or a promiscuous mingling 
of men without orders in the memorable first meeting 
of a synod at Jerusalem. For, beyond question, a 
varied ministry was now in the field, ordained de facto 
by the endowments of Pentecost, deputies of the apostles 
settling others in ordination without settling themselves, 
representing missionary work emphatically, coming in to 
report more than to vote, interested in the opening ses- 
sions of the council more than in the subsequent debates, 
privileged to come and to go according to the docket more 
than according to rules of order. Hence the term is used 
in this connection as it is in 2 Cor. viii. 23 : " Or our 
brethren be inquired of, they are the messengers of the 
churches, and the glory of Christ." Even private and 
unofficial believers were clothed with representativ^e func- 
tion when sent as messengers from one church to an- 
other, and undoubtedly " the Church," and " the whole 
Church," consisting of believers in Christ, must have 
made their influence felt and respected, as it is actually 
noted in the record by such phrases. Be this as it may, 
the constitutional assemblage was ministers and elders 
(ver. 6), " The apostles and elders came together for to 
consider of this matter," precisely as the reference had 
been made at Antioch to the general assembly under this 
form of designation for the component members. 

The reference was brought up to that council by the 
hands of Paul and Barnabas, and "certain other of 



480 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

them." It was a crucial question of tliat crisis in the 
Church, involving the rights and duties of Gentile con- 
verts and the breaking down of the middle wall between 
Jew and Gentile. Whether they should " keep the law 
of Moses" and be circumcised as well as baptized in 
order to be saved was the question which certain travel- 
lers from Judea forced into a debate with Paul and 
Barnabas at Antioch, and after " no small dissension 
and disputation" there it was "determined that Paul 
and Barnabas and certain other of them should go up 
to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this 
question." Here was a smaller portion of the Church 
sending commissioners to a larger, a lower judicatory to 
a higher, a representation of some to a " representation 
of all the churches." The very same constituents of 
authority existed at Autioch as at Jerusalem. With 
Paul, an apostle, were associated " prophets and teach- 
ers," including Barnabas and '^ certain other of them," 
who were probably ruling elders, all presbyters in rank, 
"apostles, elders and brethren" — a church, indeed, but 
not the whole Church. A question of so much import- 
ance was ecumenical just then, and needed a general 
council, not only for collective wisdom in the decision, 
but for universal unity in the acceptance. 

These commissioners " were brought on their way by 
the Church," reporting the conversion of Gentiles as 
they travelled and diffusing joy wherever they lodged 
on the journey — a picture, this, which recalls the ex- 
perience of ministers and elders in past generations here 
as they pressed on to the General xlssembly, when trav- 
elling was slower and hospitality livelier than at present. 
And the likeness of that errand to Jerusalem in primi- 
tive times may Avell suggest the identity of Presby- 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 481 

terianisni as it proceeds from the lower and limited 
jurisdiction, where a case originated, to the highest 
representative tribunal for a final decision of the visi- 
ble Church. These commissioners from Antioch, it is 
apparent, had seats among '' the apostles and elders '^ of 
that original council and participated in deliberations, 
just as now representatives from a lower judicatory, 
coming to be seated in a higher, may freely discuss and 
vote on a reference they bring, while precluded from 
voting on appeal and complaint in which they have been 
originally interested ; and when a conclusion was at- 
tained by the Assembly, the report of it was formally 
returned to Antioch, not by the representatives only, 
Paul and Barnabas, who had carried up i\\k\ overture, 
but by chosen men of '' their own company " along with 
these brethren, that the latter might not be challenged 
or suspected of gaining a partisan triumph in the de- 
cision, and not that they should be considered as a dif- 
ferent party from the council itself. For the letter of 
promulgation identified them, as members of the body 
assembled, " with our beloved Barnabas and Paul." 

The decision itself must prove that it was reached by 
a representative assembly and governing "company" 
rather than by a crowd of public and private members 
together at Jerusalem. It was not an advice merely of 
one church to another, or of one association of inde- 
pendent churches to another, which might be freely 
accepted or declined, but an injunction of. declarative 
authority in the Lord, binding upon all Christendom as 
then constituted. Apostles were members component 
by divine appointment ; prophets were members by the 
demonstration of gifts from the Holy Ghost; elders 
were members by delegation from the people, with whom 

31 



482 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

is the residuary deposit of power on earth, and whom 
all officers that are not usurpers must represent through 
every age. Enactment by such a composite assemblage 
may well be presumed authoritative in the way of de- 
cree as much as of counsel, and more. Hence in the next 
chapter (Acts xvi. 4) that decision is called "decrees" 
[doyfiaza) — "the decrees that were ordained of the apos- 
tles and elders which were at Jerusalem." Stronger 
language could not be used to denote authoritative de- 
liverance. The term rendered "decrees" is found in 
four other places of the New Testament, in every one 
of which it expresses enactment by governing authority. 
Twice it expresses edicts of the Roman emperor and 
twice the ordinances of the ceremonial law, which, of 
course, had been more imperative than advice or admoni- 
tion. It is used by " the Seventy " for the mandates of 
Nebuchadnezzar, the decrees of Darius and the laws of 
the Medes and Persians, and the participle used with it 
here, and rendered " ordained," is used twice in this 
book of Acts to denote the authority of the Jewish 
Sauhedrin, and by "the Seventy" to translate the judg- 
ment of the Persian council in degrading Queen Vashti 
from royal elevation. No words of any language, 
probably, have ever been more uniformly employed to 
express command by competent authority or injunction 
by legitimate supremacy in Church or State. 

The provisional nature of the decision does not by 
any means abate the stringency of its behest, but rather 
enforces it. There was an exigence to be met every- 
where in its promulgation. As the virulence of a 
spreading distemper must be met by the instant cogniz- 
ance and utmost exertion of power in counteraction, so 
the prejudice of expiring Judaism had to be noticed 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 483 

and charitably countervailed just then ; and the peculiar 
weakness of Gentile morality as well had to be specially 
admonished then, and advice only would have been but 
straw to leviathan. There must be the interposition of 
spiritual power with imperative cogency to direct the 
conscience of both Jew and Gentile — for a time, at 
least, until the charity and piety of Christian life, rather 
than special and precise restrictions, would come to sway 
the government of principles : " For it seemed good to 
the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater 
burden than these necessary things." Surely the church- 
power which could make a provisional obedience "neces- 
sary '^ and the same wherever churches were planted on 
the globe may still exist, and must exert itself as need 
may be in the authority of teaching and ruling, when 
the refinement in ethics will consist in the sanction of 
principle more than in the enforcement of sumptuary laws, 
which seldom lay an axe to the root of an evil tree. 

If it be objected that a council of extraordinary min- 
isters and members at the cradle of Christianity should 
not be strained as a model for succeedins: ao-es and all 
countries in the progress and development of the king- 
dom, we may answer that the constituency of all time 
in the Church was there, and represented by elders as 
an integral part of the assembly. Subtract the extra- 
ordinary ministers — apostles, prophets and evangelists — 
and the Church element of power through all the ages 
before and after may remain surely to rule when the 
other classes shall have done their specific work and 
dropped their mantle on the presbyters in ascending. 
As we have been at pains to prove on the preceding 
pages that the work of apostles distinctively was to bear 
witness to Christ of what they had seen and heard of 



484 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

him in personal intercourse, and that supplementary to 
such testimony was a ministry of gifts to give it force 
and promulgation, and that the power of polity they 
had consisted mainly in identifying the elders of the 
future with the elders of the past and making the whole 
machinery of synagogues Christian, by simply introdu- 
cing the Christian word and sacraments wherever a syn- 
agogue could be converted in whole or in part, so this 
eldership stands perpetually, and inherits all the prom- 
ises made in the covenant of old pertaining to the ful- 
ness of time, and all the prerogatives and immunities 
bestowed on the body of Christ by his own eternal Spirit 
as the Spirit of truth, holiness and power. 

Such a council was evidently justified in using the 
Greek formula of expression for sovereign authority 
and binding force : " It seemed good to the Holy Ghost 
and to us." This verb {Soxsco) is the common term for 
autocratic determination among the Greeks. Demosthe- 
nes used it in expressing the supreme authority of the 
Senate, and Plato in describing the inexorable certainty 
of death. It was used familiarly by Josephus and others 
to express the decretive power of the Jewish Sanhe- 
drin, opposition to which was punished by death : what 
" seemed good to them." But the objector will say that 
here it is the supreme authority of the Holy Ghost 
which prompted those decrees and constrained with 
miraculous guidance the decision to be promulged. That 
the result of this deliberation was not by supernatural 
afflatus of the Spirit, but by tliat ordinary teaching and 
leading of his people in every age representing the pres- 
ence of Christ in every assembly, either for worship or 
for government, without which there is neither clear 
deliberation, sound judgment, acceptable worship nor 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 485 

effective government, must be evident by the following 
considerations. 

(1) The human element is blended here with the 
divine : " It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to 
us." When it was otherwise expressed in the Old Tes- 
tament, as " holy men of old spake as they were moved 
by the Holy Ghost,'' it was " Thus saith the Lord," and 
"Thus say we" was never added. We are only and 
altogether passive when his energizing power comes 
upon us with supernatural dictation ; and even when it 
seems good to us in co-operating with him in the build- 
ing, it is " Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, 
saith the Lord of hosts." Every decision ecclesiastical, 
by ministers and elders, till the end of time, which is 
agreeable to the word of God and in harmony with the 
exigence and season of his good providence, may record 
the same thing as " good to the Holy Ghost and to us." 

(2) There was no need for that reference and journey 
and large repi'esentation assembled at Jerusalem to de- 
liberate on the question if it were not human with divine 
upon the record; for the decree of Paul himself at 
Antioch — who subsequently said, '^So ordain I in all 
the churches " — would have been as good as the whole 
twelve at Jerusalem in declaring the mind of Christ, 
if the immediate afflatus of the Holy Ghost were alone 
the organ of that result, a ^^ necessary burden " imposed 
on all the churches. 

(3) The fact recorded of ^' much disputing " in the 
council before the decision was made evinces the rational 
exercise of man's own faculties of speech and logic under 
the gracious guidance of the Holy Ghost, as now, and in 
every age of proper ecclesiastical assemblies; for a super- 
natural dictation of the Spirit, without any concurrence 



486 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

of our own rational judgments, would preclude dubiety 
and all disputation. 

(4) The nature of the decision itself was compromise, 
which is always human, the natural exercise of common 
sense and Christian charity, and means tlie imperfection 
of man's judgment on one or both sides of a controversy. 
Between Jew and Gentile — the legal James and the 
liberal Paul — the fallible Peter makes the deciding 
speech and suggests the sentence which James pro- 
nounced in formula. Provisional expediency is not 
supernatural and needs no special afflatus of inspiration 
from on high. The right motives and the warrantable 
end are of God, as he inspires the one and guides the 
other, but the precise adjustment is left to human reason 
as enlightened by the gospel. The inveterate prejudice 
of Jews and the licentious impurity of Gentiles must 
both be held in as with a bridle when the brotherhood 
of man is dawning and the orb of universality for the 
gospel is rising. Things indifferent in themselves, meats 
offered to idols, things strangled and blood must be ab- 
stained from with Christian charity, which ordinarily 
concedes something to the weakness of superstition for 
a time; and things of gross immorality, as fornication, 
must be instantly restrained and mortified until the law 
of life in Christianity shall have diffused the holiness of 
Christian principle, uprooting such abomination for ever. 
This burden of charity and self-denial the Gentile con- 
verts would gladly accept, instead of the ceremonial yoke 
of Moses, for a help to salvation ; and this external con- 
formity and actual forbearance the Jewish converts would 
gladly accept as better homage to their civilization than 
any forced submission to a yoke which neither they nor 
their fathers were able to bear. All this arrangement 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 487 

was made by the competency of human reason enlight- 
ened by the Holy Ghost and propelled by those gracious 
influences which he continues to shed upon ^' a represen- 
tation of all the churches " through all the ages, in which 
"the word of God is not bound," and in which prayer 
is made continually for the presence of Christ in the 
midst of assemblies convoked by his authority. 

Such, we think, is a fair analysis of that primeval 
assembly which the Presbyterian Church has copied 
with so much uniformity as the model of gradation 
for judicatories now and the essential supremacy of 
representation at the highest ascent of church-power 
on earth. A question of great importance which could 
not be settled at Antioch, where a perfect organization of 
Presbytery existed, though comparatively small in juris- 
diction, is voted and sent as a reference to another as- 
sembly, of higher authority, because of larger represen- 
tation — " the whole Church.'' There the question was 
accepted and amply discussed, where debate would have 
been precluded altogether if the decision had waited only 
on a supernal fiat of the Holy Ghost instead of the ex- 
haustive parlance of his ministers, whom he supplied 
with wisdom on that occasion, as he does on every 
occasion, of assemblage and prayer in the name of 
Christ. The decision itself was approximate and pro- 
visional, a measure of expediency, a pastoral of concilia- 
tion, in which the twin graces of charity and self-denial 
were to usher the unity of Christendom before imperial 
persecution would come to lay it waste. Yet this tenta- 
tive rather than radical deliverance was more than advice 
returned to the church at Antioch, which the latter might 
either accept or decline. It was imperative — a decree of 
binding obligation, a necessary burden for all the churches 



488 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

to bear along with Antioch. The strongest words of 
sovereignty in the exercise of power, and the signet 
of the Holy Ghost as the Spirit of "power and of a 
sound mind/' prohibited the disobedience. Here was 
the development of a central force of life in the whole 
Church, and not merely the flow of sympathy among 
its accretions. The body of Christ, "fitly joined to- 
gether and compacted by that which every joint sup- 
plieth," lifted up once for all its ecumenical aspect for 
the issuance of a provisional decree to quiet a local dis- 
putation and order away the rubbish of that broken 
" middle wall of partition " which Christ's incarnation 
came to remove. 

And if expediency for the time could issue thus from 
the whole Church with plenary sanction of law to bind 
all the churches, how much more must the formulation 
of eternal truth in true definitions and right applications 
bind the respect and approval of the churches represented 
in the highest assembly of any denomination that is 
Christian ! And how much more secure must be the 
rights of individual members when the same high court 
is appellate in the review of discipline and correction of 
disorders below ! The oracle of that inspired record on 
which we have commented is indeed a " lively " one to 
the end of the world, and its forceful import is already 
telling on prelacy itself. Centuries have passed with 
episcopal domination excluding a representation of the 
people from council with the bishops in their conclave. 
Now, it is found that " the Church of the future,'' 
as well as the long past, cannot gather and tax the 
people without representation, and that as a component 
of the innermost and uppermost councils no less than 
benches at the gate or in the outer courts of the temple. 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 489 

It is well to have the necessity of an appellate judicatory 
of any sort conceded, but the problem of its construction 
with the sacerdotal caste of orders resting on tradition 
without suffrage of the people must be a difficult one 
wherever the right of private judgment is not over- 
laid. 

This argument for a system of judicial administration 
in the Church might be greatly extended. The analogies 
of good government among men are ever at hand to help 
us with proof and illustration. Disintegration is anarchy 
wherever there is higher unity of power to claim a com- 
mon jurisdiction ; and when Christ himself is the one 
supremacy, and he prays and works by his Spirit to 
have all the bodies of men throughout his kingdom 
exchange their independence for his law, their local 
autonomy for his universal code, their detached affinities 
and separate sympathies and accidental proportions for 
his embodiment of all in the representation of all on 
matters of truth and right and righteousness, — we can- 
not refuse to work with him in judicatories rather than 
in conventions, decisions which remain to bind us rather 
than in resolutions which vanish into thin air. 

Congregationalism in Connecticut appreciated in good 
measure the underlying principles of such a system when 
it organized that Couso(;iation of chunjhes which has 
largely warded off the defections of creed occurring in 
Massachusetts, and recognized a Presbyterian motto with 
an imperfect reproduction of our system : " Quod tangit 
omnes, debet ah omnibus tradari (" What affects all should 
be managed by all '^). We may range about this vantage- 
ground the many formulas of God's own word by the lips 
and pens of inspired apostles : " We being many are one 
bread and one body ;" "There should be no schism in the 



490 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

body ; but that the members should have the same care 
one for another. And whether one member suffer, all 
the members suffer with it ; or one member be honored, 
all the members rejoice with it." These expressions, 
and others like them, certainly denote organization in 
which mutual rights and mutual sympathies do circulate 
as blood in the veins and arteries of a living body, dis- 
tributing the blessedness of communion with perfect in- 
timacy to the inmost issues of ransomed nature, and not 
by way of contact on the outward surfaces of like but 
different bodies, congeries and contagion rather than 
development of one heart in the pulsations of Christian 
sympathy. After the enclosure of one particular church 
is completed its relation to another of like nature is out- 
side, and only another consideration, as an after-thought, 
in the scheme of Independency ; whereas in Presbytery 
the relation of one church to another is innate and boi-n 
at the inception of either, and all addition or extension 
of number is growth more than count, according to the 
Scriptures. " Fulness '^ begins addition here. ** Who 
is offended and I burn not?" exclaimed the apostle 
Paul when he said, "The care of all the churches 
Gometh upon me daily." Total instead of local sym- 
pathy, a field of church-planting wide as the world 
instead of the vicinage or providence which bounds 
the radiation of any particular church in isolation, 
would seem to be in the mind of this great apostle 
as a characteristic of " the whole Church," a " body 
fitly joined together," so as to make increase of the 
body to the edifying of itself in love. Hence the 
soundness of the whole body is the main curative 
agency for the healing of partial distempers in any 
of the parts or members. This great analogy of medi- 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 491 

cal jurisprudence, more and more evinced in scientific 
progress, may surely avail us in application to the body 
of Christ, where all the members are " compacted by that 
which every joint supplieth," and derive their life and 
health from a common head by living ligaments, which 
make articulations, instead of by the mere juxtaposition 
that helps by accident or mechanical device. 

In correlation with this gift of healing with which 
Presbytery is endowed is the exercise of right also. 
As in a living body ^' the eye cannot say unto the hand, 
I have no need of thee : nor again the head to the feet, I 
have no need of you,'' so these " more feeble '' members 
Decessarily acquire a claim for direction from the eye and 
animation from the head in the motions of life. The ex- 
tinction of an eye or a blow upon the head, therefore, 
must be damage and wrong done to these inferior mem- 
bers and their actuated obedience. In plainer words, no 
particular church in this body of Christ has a right to 
deny the divinity of Christ and so leave all the other 
members of his body without an adequate Head, and 
consequently injured in the derivation of influence and 
vitality, grace for grace, until we are made complete in 
Jesus. Hence the authority of discipline arises in gov- 
ernmental forms for the repression and restraint of per- 
nicious evil. And even the law of nations may control 
the world by the analogy of this principle borrowed from 
the law of Christ. No multiplication of small democra- 
cies without the unity of system and central power in a 
great republic could have proclaimed in the morning of 
this century that no despotism of the Transatlantic world 
shall henceforth plant its foot among our neighbors on 
the continent we inhabit. These neighbors have no 
right to do as they please in the premises when the 



492 CHURCH GOVERNMENT, 

safety of one nation is at stake in the destiny of another 
beside it. The mission we have from the God of nature 
and humanity to fulfil as a nation could endure no con- 
terminous propagandism at war with its own cherished 
principles. 

In like manner, no single church or association of 
churches should be let alone to disseminate contagious 
error on the borders of general soundness in the faith, 
and only that constructure of the Church in a system 
which brings the sanity of a whole body to bear upon 
the disease or defection of any particular part is com- 
petent to save the whole body from corruption and 
apostasy. Withdrawal of fellowship is not enough of 
sanction for moral condemnation. Although it may 
seem virtually the same, in effect, as the censure even 
to excision ^' inflicted by many," it lacks the force of a 
positive and formal sentence by constituted authority, 
so essential to the ordinance of judicial discipline. 
Wherever the rulers and the ruled are identical in 
authority, and those ^' who are over them in the Lord ^^ 
are actually under the people in the ratification of every- 
thing proposed by the officers, there can be no conclusive 
government or adjudication. 

When our Congregational brethren move to arrest the 
propagation of Socinian heresy or another probation for 
the heathen after death, and every method of counter- 
vailing effort by discussion and review has failed to stop 
the mischief and reconcile opinions, their last resort is the 
first resort of Presbyterianism, in such cases — a council 
composed of representation from various and many par- 
ticular congregations. Yet no decision according to the 
fundamental tenets of church polity in that denomina- 
tion can be made by the council more conclusive than 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 493 

the persuasion attempted before it was convoked at 
all. It is only advice — made more impressive, indeed, 
by the force of majorities voting — but uo definitive 
decree to bind the conscience of parties concerned in 
the debate beforehand, like that necessary burden laid 
on all the churches by the council at Jerusalem. And 
it is not even accepted advice until it is ratified in detail 
by eacli congregation apart, and perhaps incorporated in 
the covenant and creed of the people themselves in each 
particular charge. " Progressive orthodoxy " in this 
way of bootless agitation, fluctuating change and in- 
determinate conclusion must be, in the long run, a 
memorial of dissipated strength in the kingdom of 
our Lord. 

So near akin is Congregationalism to us in the liberty 
and right of private judgment, and in the traditions of a 
second Reformation at Westminster, and the intertwined 
activities of religion which laid here the foundations 
of a republic in civil government, we ^^ suffer '' with 
such a sister, and deplore the waste of learning and 
piety in such economy at our side, through fear of a 
phantom, which, in the eyes of Congregational Inde- 
pendency, ever shadows the progress of Presbyterian 
church government. This phantom is the spiritual 
despotism they see in conciliary dogmas of decision, 
enforced without being first accepted, as if no tyranny 
were to be met in the doings of a popular mass in 
excited congregation which is responsible to no para- 
mount authority over its transactions, and in which 
there can be no ruling but proposal for the deliberation 
and enactment of the people themselves. Escape from 
the tyranny of a majority in one congregation has no 
refuge provided in which local majorities are held re- 



494 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

sponsible; and spiritual anarchy is encountered in that 
spontaneous arbitration outside which would redress the 
grievance done by inside independence. Plow much less 
perilous to liberty and right is the gradation of consti- 
tuted courts in our system, through which the injured or 
aggrieved may prosecute their cause with better hope at 
every step of the complaint or appeal that a higher 
tribunal, more enlarged in representation and remote 
from the local influence which had prejudiced the right, 
will eventually honor truth and justice with an adequate 
vindication ! 

The comparison made in England over two centuries 
ago between Presbytery and Independency, when the 
latter was advocated by able and godly men com- 
peting for the ascendancy of their system, both by 
debate in the Assembly of Divines at Westminster and 
by the countenance of Oliver Cromwell at the head of 
the Commonwealth, may reveal to us the steadiness of 
the one and the changeableness of the other as we come 
down to the present day. The following tabulation was 
made by a faithful hand about the time that discussion, 
both in the Assembly and in the Parliament, had ex- 
hausted the subject and sharply defined the relative 
positions taken : 

Independent. Presbyterian. 

No other visible Church of One visible Church of Christ 

Christ is acknowledged, but only on earth is acknowledged, and all 

a single congregational meeting particular churches and single 

in one place to partake of all congregations are but as similar 

ordinances. parts of that whole. 

The matter of their visible The matter of the Church in- 
Church must be, to their utmost visible are only true believei-s, but 
judgment of discerning, such as of the Church visible persons pro- 
have true grace — real saints. fessing true iaith in Christ and 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 



495 



INDEPENDENT. 



Their churches are gathered 
out of other true visible churches 
of Christ, without any leave or 
consent of pastor or flock ; yea, 
against their wills, receiving such 
as tender themselves — yea, too 
often by themselves or otiiers, 
directly or indirectly seducing 
disciples after them. 



Preaching elders are only elect- 
ed, not ordained. 

Ruling elders also preach. 

The subject of church gov- 
ernment is the community of the 
faithful. 

The church-officers act imme- 
diately as the servants of the 
church, and deputed thereby. 

All censures and acts of gov- 
ernment are dispensed in single 
congregations ultimately, inde- 
pendently, without all liberty of 
appeal from them to any superior 
church assembly ; so the parties 
grieved are left without remedy. 

There are acknowledged no 
authoritative classes or synods, 
in common, great, difficult cases 
and in matters of appeals, but 
only suasive and consultative; 



Presbyterian. 

obedience to him according to 
the rules of the gospel. 

Parochial churches are re- 
ceived as true visible churches 
of Christ and most convenient 
for mutual edification. Gather- 
ing churches out of churches hath 
no footsteps in Scripture, is con- 
trary to apostolical practice, is the 
scattering of churches, the daugh- 
ter of schism, the mother of con- 
fusion, but the stepmother to 
edification. 

Preaching elders are both 
elected and ordained. 

Ruling elders only rule, preach 
not. 1 Tim. v. 17. 

The subject of church govern- 
ment is only Christ's own church- 
officers. 

The church-governors act im- 
mediately as the servants of 
Christ, and as appointed by him. 

All censures and acts of gov- 
ernment are dispensed in congre- 
gational Presbyteries, subordi- 
nately, dependently, with liberty 
of appeal, in all cases, to pres- 
byterial or synodal assemblies, 
where parties grieved have suf- 
ficient remedy. 

There are acknowledged, and 
with happy success used, not only 
suasive and consultative, but also 
authoritative. Classes and Synods, 
in cases of great importance, dif- 



496 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

Independent. Presbyterian. 

and in case advice be not fol- ficulty, common concernment or 
lowed, they proceed only to a appeals, which have power to 
non-communion. dispense all church censures, as 

need shall require. 

It should be noticed in this comparison and contrast — 

1. That both parties, Independents and Presbyterians, 
of that memorable Westminster age, agreed that external 
organization belongs to the conception of Church, and all 
the diversities of form existing in reformed Christianity 
could not neutralize one another enough to confound 
visibility or eliminate from the ultimate idea of ecclesia 
the setting in this great mystical body of members to be 
seen as incorporated with Christ, however much they 
differ in form or method working for the same con- 
summation : " Differences of administration, but the 
same Lord ;'' ^^ Diversities of operation, but it is the 
same God which worketh all in all." 1 Cor. xii. 

2. Presbyterianism has not changed during that time, 
nearly two centuries and a half, as if it had been built 
on a rock even before Peter made his great confession 
of Jesus. It wears to this day the churchly form of all 
dispensations. It is both visible and invisible, and even 
its visibility is catholic enough to embrace with ardent 
charity all that name the name of Christ in sincerity 
and truth. Not only do " similar parts " of the whole 
enter the scope of its unity, but dissimilar parts in the 
visible organization are embraced as true churches in the 
scope and co-operation of its catholicity. Rejecting still 
the Anabaptist figment of a perfectly holy Church to be 
seen in this world without any tares among the wheat, it 
continues to replenish the visible communion of saints 
with all that make a credible profession of faith, with- 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 497 

out preteDcling to search the hearts of men at the en- 
trance with a certainty of finding out the reality of a 
saving change. "Gathering churches out of churches" 
with proselyting aggression has never been the fault of 
Presbyterian polity, however adventurous her missionary 
zeal at home as well as abroad. And, however damaging 
within her own folds a wild enthusiasm of this pietistic 
nature may have been for a while in the last century, 
the divided Synods were again united on the original 
foundations of saving truth and " moderation known 
to all men." 

The distinction between " preaching elders " and 
"ruling elders," though slurred by many a platitude 
of criticism among ourselves and sharpened to excess 
in shoving out of rank the latter and calling them 
delegates and laymen, we keep with clear discrimina- 
tion, and retain them both as " commissioners " in office 
and representation. Perfectly equal in joint assembly as 
judges, and "apt to teach" in the true latitude of the 
original, privately, if not publicly also, they are ever 
distinguished in ordination by a difference in the power 
of order, the one class given wholly to the administra- 
tion of " word and sacraments," and the other partially 
an episcopate of inspection over the life and consistency 
of membership, without preaching or living at the altar 
instead of secular business, providing things honest in 
the sight of all men by the work of their own hands. 
Both these classes are alike subordinate and appellate, 
qualified normally to rule the people in particular 
churches and represent them at every grade of judi- 
catory above, to which they may be specially com- 
missioned. 

Representation never runs out as it ascends in these 
:',2 



498 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

classes of elders respectively to the higher and highest 
tribunals of the Church. On the contrary, it has become 
intensified as it goes up in making higher courts to be 
representative of lower as well as the people ruled, and 
the highest of all the most authoritative because it is 
representative "of all the churches/' Conservative 
more than any other body in Christendom called 
" Church," this Presbyterian system stands unchanged ; 
and minor eccentricities, like that of time-service, here 
and there allowed in the tenure of the ruling eldership, 
are but transitory in observance and reclaimed at length 
by the solid consistency of the whole structure. 

3. Independency, on the other hand, seems to have 
been changing with almost every generation. In its 
original weakness of governmental form it coalesced 
with civil authority in theocratic evolutions over New 
England, notwithstanding the robust orthodoxy of its 
churches that intrinsically protested against union of 
Church and State, and especially the prevalence of 
Erastian usurpation by the latter, which would consign 
a proper discipline within the Church alone to civil 
municipalities and powers for executive action. How 
far this amalgamation may have led to the discontinu- 
ance of ruling elders in the churches may not be known 
from history; but it is known at a glance that the first 
principle of such organization would supersede the use 
of elders to rule, inasmuch as the people only rule them- 
selves and their guides conduct the government — if gov- 
ernment it can be, without misnomer — by submitting 
propositions to the governed, to be adopted or rejected 
according to their own good pleasure. 

John Owen, that mighty theologian of the seven- 
teenth century, was an Independent, adhering all his life- 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 499 

time to that one of the two essential tenets which will 
have consultative and not authoritative councils for the 
reference of difficult and disputed cases of rule and dis- 
cipline. His logical mind, however, could not approve 
the other first principle noticed above — governing with- 
out governors, elders made servants, the people of each 
church ruling themselves in their own way and making 
themselves at once accusers, witnesses and judges in all 
juridical procedure. Probably the ablest argument ever 
made against this "confused and uncertain w^ay," as 
Jonathan Edwards called it, and in behalf of ruling 
elders for a bench of authority and justice in each par- 
ticular church, came from the pen of Dr. Owen. Yet, 
though sustained and urged by Dr. Ames of Old Eng- 
land, and by the Mathers and other great lights of New 
England, ruling elders were dropped from the system — 
a great change for the worse, tliough consistent with its 
radical defectiveness, already told. 

But another great change — for the better, and not the 
worse, in any of its aspects — has been the communion 
of churches with one another, not only as they are inter- 
laced in one system, but all systems that are evangeli- 
cal in creed and becoming outline of constitution. The 
original indictment for making churches out of churches, 
thus lacerating the body of Christ to extend the con- 
glomerate of their own propagation, has been cancelled. 
The munificent charity, the catholic platform, the vast 
co-operation and the waves of intelligence which flow 
to the ends of the earth attest the progress of Congre- 
gational Independency now. Though all this be not a 
development from the central force of an inner life in 
the system itself, as we have seen, it is a problem of 
growth on the outside which invites a lively solution 



600 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

and shows how blessed is the interaction of one true 
Church upon another in breaking the crust of exclusive- 
ness and everywhere venting the pent-up sympathies of 
sect from the heart of a common Christianity. 

Another betterment in progressive change is the 
solemnity of ordination to follow an election by the 
people of their pastor. Awkwardly, indeed, accord- 
ing to the original Brownism of Independency, men 
of the vicinage who are already in the ministry may 
come or not as they please, being constrained by no 
command of a Presbytery to lay their hands upon the 
head of one chosen by the people ; so that the insepara- 
ble connection between popular suffrage and the recog- 
nition and validity thereof in the solemn though not 
sacramental act of ministers, after the example of 
apostles, is left a contingency instead of an order ap- 
pointed by the due authority. Yet, even 'this approxi- 
mation to the stand of all historical churches must be 
reckoned an advance from radicalism to the catholic 
sympathies which more and more unite conformities in 
the visible Church. 

The principle attained in submitting the electoral vote 
of a people to the sanction of ministers in the neighbor- 
hood by the laying on of their hands in ordination has 
led Congregational Independency more and more to 
confide in councils and look beyond its primitive paling 
to more general assemblies met in the name of Jesus 
Christ to formulate the expression of truth and right 
on questions of difficult solution and distracting dif- 
ference of opinion among the churches. But the specific 
value of conciliary declaration is lost when it is not dis- 
cerned and received as authoritative beyond the personal 
respectability of selected counsellors. Everything in 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATTON. 501 

true Christiauity must be more or less a thing of 
authority, like the teaching of its Founder, else the 
moral arbitration which settles a dispute and composes 
peace, wanting this royal stamp, is no '' necessary bur- 
den " nor binding obligation upon any of the churches, 
and the subsequent agitation — quieted, perhaps, for a 
time on the surface — becomes deeper and wider like 
waves of the sea in proportion to such ventilation. As 
among the surges of Gennesaret there was no subsidence 
or safety until the voice of divine authority said, " Peace, 
be still," so in the deep sea of public opinion, where men 
float uncertainly and grapple for some anchor that is sure, 
only the deliverance which comes with such authority 
can allay disturbances and prevent the tossing of idle 
and endless debate. When it is objected that " councils 
may err " and arrogate authority which only cpunterfeits 
the divine, we answer that any other ordinance of God, 
as administered by fallible men, is liable to similar abuse 
and mistake, and we are justified in ignoring all authority 
in preaching the word because the preacher may err in 
the interpretation of his text. Authority does exist in 
councils which represent fairly the churches, and only 
the conscience that obeys God rather than man is 
authorized to make the exceptions which cannot fairly 
be made without adopting the rule. 

And that there is rule to be recognized in councils 
legitimately called is now more than ever tacitly con- 
ceded by Congregational Independency. For why did 
the memorable debate in the meeting of the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions at Des 
Moines, Iowa, over the Andover departure in respect 
to a future probation after death held for the heathen, 
subside in conciliation and good- will on the proposition 



502 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

submitted to take from the prudential committee the 
prerogative of judging the theology of candidates for 
the foreign field and commit this judgment to a theo- 
logical council — whatever that may mean — if there had 
been no tacit expectation of a final settlement as author- 
ized in such a quarter ? It would be only shifting the dis- 
pute from one arena to another interminably if the coun- 
cil designed was to be no more than a " consultative " 
synod, which can be nothing but advisory in its conclu- 
sions. It is admitted that even authoritative assemblies 
of representative men might not be able to conclude a 
peace in such an agitation, but they could save their 
Board of Missions from the dilemma of running without 
motive or losing support at home by the decision. of coun- 
cil as a Presbytery in the premises to break the bone of 
contention by repudiating the speculation of error in can- 
didates and disowning the corporations which promulge 
the same. It may be admitted, also, that the decision 
of any human council inferentially derived from an 
honest interpretation of Scripture is dogma, and not 
doctrine positively revealed, and therefore of less obliga- 
tion devolving than the Confession of Faith adopted. 
But the measure of its authority is to end controversy 
in the bosom of the Church whose representation pro- 
nounces and promulgates the decree. It may even split 
the visibility of a Church and occasion a secession, but 
this evil is assuredly less than a continuance of conflict 
within, which never ends without a disruption at length 
that may sever unity with bitter alienation and multiply 
the fragments of a system which is already weakened by 
too much disintegration. 

Yet another year goes by, and the scheme of cou- 
ciliar advice, by general consent of the '^corporators," 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 503 

cannot be adopted because it is inorganic in tlie nature 
of their system : it makes no organic connection of the 
Board with the churches, being simply a representation 
without authority. And thus that noble American 
Board — a corporation of civil authority, and not the 
Church — must go on to wield the right arm of all 
true churches in sending the gospel abroad by the force 
of a civil charter mino;liiicr its form with the ji-reat com- 
mission of our exalted Saviour, and virtually making 
new and continuous the old theocracy of New England 
— Church and State united, whose " corporators ^' manage 
a Christian trust without formal deference to church au- 
thority expressed organically. 

The conclusion we reach now respecting Independ- 
ency in the present form of Congregationalism is that 
the two most radical defects on the score of Church 
government, transmitted from the Brownism in which it 
began, remain essentially unchanged and practically make 
no government at all, properly speaking, in either a 
sacred or a civil sense. These are, first, small com- 
munities visibly separated from all other churches, even 
those called by their own name, in each of Avhich the 
officers set over them are servants, and not rulers at all 
except in the sense that they are part of the people com- 
posing the membership, and voting in common with 
others over whom they are invested with an oversight 
which is allowed to have no function of authority, but 
merely the lead in proposing measures for the congrega- 
tion to enact, and formally declaring the result thereon 
of membership suffrage into which the official has been 
merged. Even if it be " regenerate membership^' truly 
in possessing " the spirit of power and of love and of a 
sound mind,'' it cannot possess a warrant for setting 



504 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

aside the instruments or symbols of authority over 
them which God has appointed in his word. SecomJli/, 
there is no appeal permitted from the popular decision 
made in this way, however much it may be made in a 
corner, in prejudice or passion, ignorance or mistake, to 
which regenerate nature is liable in this life. There is 
no tribunal above this one small congregation to which 
it is amenable for the slur of doctrine, travesty of prac- 
tice or injustice done to innocent offenders. A lateral 
assembly of officers and lay delegates may or may not 
be invited to meet and consider, but never to review and 
control, the proceedings of an independent court, except 
to consult on propositions abstracted from actual process. 
And yet the wisest and best conclusions attained by the 
council are only counsel which may or may not be 
accepted by the parties concerned. Society constituted 
in this way is not government with adequate shape for 
any one of its branches, legislative, executive or judicial. 
Churches constituted in this way are not catholic, how- 
ever true and pure they may be respectively, for all his- 
torical catholicity means that office-bearei^ must be rulers, 
called such in Scripture by every name that denotes rul- 
ing authority, and the people choosing them must be 
ruled, of course, thereby, and that authority in ruling 
any particular church, however diminutive, must be 
graduated in ascending degrees of responsibility for 
truth and right until a visible supremacy is reached in 
a general representation of all the churches composed 
of the old ruling constituency in the generic sense of 
elders. 

Teaching and ruling are distinguished from each other 
by an obvious variety of meaning, but are absolutely in- 
separable in the commission of our Lord to evangelize 



JUDICATORIES IN GRADATION. 505 

the world. DiscipHog men is ruling them to some 
extent, unquestionably. An official warrant of power 
is in the very nature of preaching, and coextensive, 
therefore, with its universality. The preacher to one 
particular church is just the same to a score of churches 
besides on occasion, and to a general assembly of churches 
represented on another occasion, and world-wide as 
preaching is the intrinsic authority of it must be. 
And who will say that authoritative application of 
the word preached must be shut up within the pale 
of one particular fold after another, and that too in 
the way of serving, without commanding, also, the 
consciences to which it is sent? 

If, then, the plural of church, and not the singular 
only, is the legitimate field of teaching elders, it is of 
ruling elders also in eligible representation, and the 
association of these together will represent a district as 
well as a locality, and jointly govern as well as teach all 
they represent in the collective exercise of these functions. 
Such a body is what we call a '^ Presbytery." The 
regime of one locality so conducted with similar combi- 
nation of these distinct yet inseparable elements of 
power we call a "Session,'' though called also, and 
perhaps with more propriety, a " Consistory," in which 
alone, through the whole gradation of courts, the rulers 
outnumber the teachers, giving to the people who choose 
them to office the utmost advantage of representative 
wisdom and power in the first and must familiar council 
that can be had in the visible Church. How far the 
levels may ascend of higher and aj^pellate judicatories 
in the system is to be determined by convenience and 
expediency according to the extent of space and number 
of particular churches and circumstances of country, 



606 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

language and tradition. No grade of representation 
ever becomes too high or too remote for the review 
and protection of any member, however humble and 
private. 



CHAPTER Xyil. 

CONSTITUTIONAL IMPORTANCE OF THE GENERAL 
ASSEMBLY. 

THE relation of one judicatory to another in our sys- 
tem of graduated authority is precisely and well ex- 
plained by the ^' Form of Government/^ which delineates 
the Presbyterian organization, and to which the student 
is referred. It is part of our constitution which must 
be formally approved in order to exercise a ministry 
among our people, and, beyond this necessity, it claims 
a searching scrutiny as a compact and logical structure 
which implies more than it expresses in the principles 
that underlie its distribution of power among the assem- 
blies. Sessional, Presbyterial, Synodical and General. It 
has been often debated which is the primary court in the 
system we approve, and, inasmuch as the Synod is de- 
fined " a larger Presbytery,'' the dispute is narrowed to 
three — the Session, the Presbytery and the General As- 
sembly. In attempting this problem we are not to be 
led by the analogies of civil government with which we 
are conversant, and which are in many features the same 
as our church government, for these are fundamentally 
different in the rise and progress of their institution. 
As already ol)served, the State comes from multiplicity 
in its human constituents, but the Church from unity, 
the fulness of her Head in heaven. She is the body of 
Christ in a mystical though actual sense. 

5or 



608 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

1. That judicatory of the Church must be first as well 
as last to be distinguished which is next and nearest the 
Head in the scope of its oversight and the assemblage 
of gifts and graces, to the utmost variety, that makes 
the Church what she is. The accepted definition of the 
General Assembly as a '' representation of all the 
churches" in this denomination obviously determines 
that this high court is the primary one in our system. 
Whether this word " primary '^ be taken in the sense of 
time or importance, it is decidedly the character of our 
General Assembly. No matter about the name. It was 
called " Presbytery " in 1707 ; "Synod '' in 1717 ; " Gen- 
eral Assembly" in 1789; but in all this progression it 
was the same in general representation for the time, and 
only comparative expansion altered the designation, and 
higher ascent of appeal and review the degree of power. 
As the number of members increased the visible body 
of Christ was enlarged in grow-th, and, as every church 
in particular and every member individually in his own 
place and adjustment shared the power of Christ in special 
modification as a gift, the total distribution from on high 
represented the Head himself more and more completely ; 
and as the General Assembly at once represents the Head 
of grace and power most completely, and the aggregate 
of professing believers most entirely, it should be con- 
sidered the primary court alike in time and dignity and 
elementary tuition. 

2. The complete ideal of any body or thing is first in 
the mind of an observer in order to comprehend aright 
the division and subdivision of parts and the relative 
position and value of these. We are to study the out- 
line before we can perceive the right direction and situa- 
tion of what is folded within. We are to studv the 



IMPORTANCE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 509 

meaning and force of general before we can adequately 
know the bearing and use of partial representation. So 
we should contemplate the organization of the General 
Assembly if we would rightly construe the distribution 
of power and use to the lower levels of Synodical, Pres- 
byterial and Sessional constitution. These all descend 
from the primitive and single representation of church- 
power, like that council of apostles and elders in Jeru- 
salem ; and we may well assume that the best conformity 
we have to that original pattern should be studied, sur- 
veyed and appreciated in order to understand the relation 
and propriety of all derivatives and how the General 
Assembly creates the Synod, and the Synod the Presby- 
tery, and the Presbytery the local Session, in the sym- 
metry of our system. The fact so familiarly observed 
— that this General Assembly is annually made up of 
commissioners from the Presbyteries — does by no means 
indicate that these courts below create the courts above, 
and especially the General Assembly. It is merely con- 
ventional that Presbyteries are made such factors at pres- 
ent, instead of Synods or Sessions, as we readily see 
these might be made the precincts from which would 
come the composition of a General Assembly. A wise 
expediency in the method of making it up cannot mod- 
ify or translate the intrinsic authority and relative trans- 
cendency of a general ^' representation of the churches " 
to the Presbyteries only as the fountain. 

3. This high court is a body of living men to whom 
belongs in superlative degree the promise of ubiquitous 
and everlasting presence on the part of their adorable 
Head. A living God, a living Christ, a living and 
eternal Spirit, abides with them as they abide with him, 
according to his own inspired word. Written constitu- 



510 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

tions, therefore, so far as they are man-made, cannot cre- 
ate this tribunal, from which, on the contrary, they must 
emanate as creatures, in the nature and reason of things. 
Yet this General Assembly is by no means the vicegerent 
of her Head. She cannot carry all the government upon 
her shoulder ; she cannot stoop, as our infinite Lord him- 
self can do, to inspect and manage little things as well 
as great things, all interests as well as minute and de- 
tailed affairs of administration, and therefore inferior 
courts are brought into existence by her wisdom for 
practical help to herself; and these, in succession of both 
time and degree, increased in number as her exigency 
and extension required. The voluntary part with which 
the larger would set off the smaller body of representa- 
tion for this object is binding alike on both parties, and 
may not be transgressed by either. The Synod, the 
Presbytery, the Session, brought into existence in this 
way, stand henceforth as firmly on the constitution as 
the General Assembly itself, for this high court cannot 
go back on itself, its overture, its confirmation, which 
make vested rights in the lower courts that cannot be 
revoked by the higher. Thus, and on this principle, 
the doctrines of our constitution, as contained in the 
Confession of Faith, and, indeed, all "constitutional 
rules," are unalterable by the will or prior movement 
of the General Assembly, the whole Church, represented 
by the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, having 
stipulated at the original formation of such Assembly 
that two-thirds of the Presbyteries may propose altera- 
tions or amendments which shall be valid if subsequently 
enacted by the General Assembly. This organic cove- 
nant against the facilities of change is felt by nearly all 
intelligent churchmen to be still binding alike on Assem- 



IMPORTANCE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 511 

bly and on Presbytery, for it is an underlying decree of 
that authority which gave the constitution by which the 
General Assembly is governed, and which, though not 
written on the face of this constitution, morally binds us 
in the record that created the Assembly, and stipulated 
fundamentally this vital enactment respecting alteration. 
But early in the present century this obligation was 
felt to be a bandage too stringent, making it almost im- 
possible to revise and modify those regulations of method 
— called '^standing rules" at the first — in the exercise 
of government and discipline which need to be con- 
formed to the varieties of condition and life that pertain 
to the changing generations of people, in the Church as 
well as in the world. So, by consent of the churches, 
tardily and reluctantly given, a distinction was recognized 
between such procedures of government as relate to its 
temporal administration and the doctrines contained in 
the Confession of Faith, which are eternal as the word 
of God itself in proportion as they are fairly derived 
from the volume of inspiration. Accordingly, an al- 
tered formula was inserted in the constitution, changing 
" standing " to " constitutional '^ rules and making it 
proper authority in the General Assembly, instead of 
two-thirds of the Presbyteries, to begin the movement 
for change or amendment in forms of regulated order 
and application of discipline by overture sent down to 
all the Presbyteries and receivino^ the return in writino^ 
of all the votes thereon, declaring the result, in case of 
adoption, to be a part of our constitution. The ultimate 
ratification by the General Assembly ought never to have 
been omitted or separated from a final declaration on the 
adoption of an overture, because the beginning of such 
a movement, and not the ending, has been the only 



512 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

modification of the original covenant authorized by the 
churches, and also because the Assembly must ascer- 
tain at last whether an overture has been consistently 
adopted or adopted only in part, so as virtually to annul 
the intention of the supreme judicatory in sending it 
down. This did occur in 1827, when the whole return 
was set aside as abortive because only parts of a logical 
whole had been voted by the requisite majority of Pres- 
byteries. 

Along with distinctly administrative measures in our 
constitution thus to be overtured immediately from the 
Assembly to Presbyteries in the direction of change may 
be minute portions of the doctrinal standards, which 
seem to be like rules more than doctrines, and which 
are alleged fairly to shine with but secondary light, 
if any, of Holy Scripture, in doubtful interpretation 
and unconnected with any capital doctrine of the system. 
Facility of alteration may go to some retrenchment of 
this kind also without much danger, but only the 
clerical error, the obsolete w^ord, illogical sentence or 
detached superfluity, may be allowed to depart readily 
by this easier gateway of alteration. And the sharp 
distinction of mode by our fathers should ever be re- 
garded as an emphasis of denial to the right of a 
General Assembly, or any portion thereof less than 
two-thirds of the Presbyteries, beginning the motion 
to reduce, alter, amend or dislocate the Confession of 
Faith and the Catechisms incorporated therewith. It 
is a stipulated plank at the foundation of the Assembly, 
a heritage secured for that august supremacy before it 
was born, a charter which made it what it is and blessed 
it with prosperity and strength. Outside of the con- 
stitution given with this covenant, the understanding. 



IMPORTANCE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 513 

nevertheless, exists iu equity of prior, fundamental and 
unchangeable force. 

The General Assembly, being at once a representa- 
tive of Christ, the Head, and all particular churches of 
the name, is a mystical body, though literally composed 
of living men from year to year. We cannot, therefore, 
make it directly the subject of analysis like the civil or- 
ganizations which it may resemble. Elderships make 
it up to the sight, and these are authorities which dawn 
upon mankind at the cradle of the race. Prehistorical 
but not unrevealed, patriarchal domination was known 
as soon as " men began to call upon the name of the 
Lord.^' Genesis, in holy Scripture, is the first record 
of social compact, and the authority of man over men, 
and the claim of age to govern youth and patriarch to 
organize the subordination of descendants. And in this 
visible estate the first promise of the gospel was work- 
ing out mysteriously the first visibility of the Church, 
though inscrutably folded through many generations. 
Development was late in time and all its antecedents 
were synthetical. Corresponding to this fact are all 
the analogies of nature to be seen. Every form of life 
in its organism begins with elements in whole, and not 
in part. Even the tree, which may propxigate itself by 
the twig or the graft when it is grown, must begin from 
an acorn or a grain of seed in which are folded all the 
diversities of subsequent germination. But animated 
life, especially the human body, w^hich inspiration has 
chiefly selected for its metaphor of a Church, both visible 
and invisible, cannot either begin or be propagated by a 
piece or a limb cut off, or in any other way than that of 
the embryo, which is always the content and source of 
any development *Mn continuance." Ps. cxxxix. 15, 16. 

33 



514 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

The physical mystery of our being as it was sung by 
David of old became tlie favorite analogy of the apostle 
Paul for the mystery of a Church-State, and the fii-st 
lesson it impresses must ever be that the whole is primary 
to the parts, that the collective Church is mother of the 
particular church, that an organic whole must precede an 
organic part, that the health of the whole must be avail- 
able for the sustenance and cure of the parts respectively, 
and that the anointing oil which flows down from the 
head of our only Priest must suffuse the whole body as 
it goes '' down to the skirts of his garments." We are 
constrained by all intimations, both in the Old Testa- 
ment and in the New, to guard our ideal from the mis- 
apprehension — occasioned in republican government by 
the difference of its theory and practice — in beginning 
with the parts and building up by drawing these together, 
" the primaries " — a congeries of these indefinitely scat- 
tered — as the basis of a nation. In the Church one be- 
comes many ; in the State many become one. In the 
Church unity is broken by the deflection of a part ; in 
the State unity is not broken by the loss of a part, either 
in territory or in citizenship. As long as loyal numbers 
fill its army and abide under its rule there is unity intact 
and continued, 

4. The Church in history accords with the institute 
of her mystical norm in revelation. We have already 
noticed the primeval assembly of apostles and elders at 
Jerusalem, representing in council all the churches then 
existing, and discussing the reference from Antioch of a 
critical and important question for the time, and deciding 
with more than advice in return, and more than Antioch 
to be enjoined, with a decree of binding obligation au- 
thoritatively promulgated to all the churches. 



IMPORTANCE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 515 

Priesthood instead of eldership returning to rule 
with temple-service and titles restored and the primi- 
tive ecclesia moulded again as Levitical and united 
with imperial despotism, representative government was 
lost in Nicene Christianity, and her general councils were 
no more the model of administration as it was originally 
constituted by apostles and elders. Nothing of its like- 
ness remained but the stringent authority of decisions, 
and these degenerated apace to intolerance and persecu- 
tion. The "dictates'' of Hildebrand, in which the 
mediaeval papacy culminated, were logically inconsistent 
with free deliberation of councils, eitlier general or pro- 
vincial. These were less and less frequently convoked ; 
and when, at irregular intervals, they were summoned to 
meet, the main business became a mere bolster to the 
usurpation which called them and registry of decrees 
inspired at Rome. We must, therefore, come to the 
Reformation, which emancipated private judgment and 
public freedom from the yoke of despotic hierarchy, for 
councils made whole again by sound speech made free 
and true representation of the churches made fair in the 
adjustment of ratio and concernment of all. 

The Reformed Church of Scotland in its first organi- 
zation began with a General Assembly coming together 
spontaneously from all the churches converted, and adopt- 
ing books of discipline which contained the principles of 
reconstruction for itself and all subordinate assemblies 
of Synod, Presbytery and Session as these were to be 
subsequently set off from time to time and governed by 
its paramount authority. The practical force of truth 
developed formation from above, and not below or 
beside, and embodied itself in constitutional formulas 
which could not be sent down as overture to courts 



516 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

below or churches below that were only to be gathered 
as yet, by the use of such instruments, in teaching "doc- 
trine, discipline and distribution" as these were found 
in the Bible. For a century, almost, the Second Book 
of Discipline, amending the imperfections and avoiding 
the tentative confusion of the First Book, was the plat- 
form alike of the Assembly, Synod, Presbytery and 
Session, although the imprimatur of the general and 
original court alone was affixed and no one below had 
been invited to vote on its adoption. 

When the commissioners from Scotland to the West- 
minster Assembly of Divines returned with the finished 
work of that memorable convocation, it was soon adopted 
and incorporated with existing standards by the General 
Assembly without any transmission to Synod or Presby- 
tery for the approval by constituencies below. And only 
then it was, within a few years from this adoption, and 
after some hundred and forty years of stormy time and 
fiery trial, through which their symbols of confession 
had been completed and, as it were, seven times purified, 
that this venerable mother-Church passed the " Barrier 
Act," as it is called, by which all change or modification 
of her constitution thereafter must be overtured to the 
Presbyteries and enacted only after a majority of these 
should signify their assent. Thus the whole Church in 
representation first composed the system by which au- 
thority was handed down to courts of her own crea- 
tion, to be invested there in forms of constitutional 
immunity, made irrevocable. 

The AVestminster Assembly itself, though convoked 
by secular authority when ecclesiastical authorities were 
all in solution by the force of Puritanical sentiment and 
zeal, derived no construction whatever from the civil 



IMPORTANCE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 517 

power above it, nor yet from cimrchly organizations be- 
side or below it, in a conjunction of singular independ- 
ence from all sorts of constituency the world over, being 
a spontiineous "representation of all the churches'' and 
free from all need of apologetical propositions in its Con- 
fession of Faith. It was " the whole Church " defining 
truth, declaring discipline, arranging ministries, accord- 
ing to the Bible, and leaving their whole conciliary work 
to speak for itself without waiting for a single echo to 
return or consequent ratification by Presbyteries to make 
it binding. Its intrinsic force of truth, its marvellous 
adaptation to the kingdom of Christ, made it the crown 
of a second Reformation. 

In the same century, and but a little while before it, 
was the Synod of Dort, assembled by the agency of 
Maurice, prince of Orange, to settle the strife between 
Calvinism and Arminianism, or the Belgic Confession 
and the " Remonstrants," who were followers of James 
Arminius. England, Scotland, Switzerland, Bremen, 
the Palatinate and Hesse readily came with representa- 
tion of the churches to join the Belgic deputies in the 
effort of conciliation, and, this failing in the dispassion- 
ate moderation of Contra-Remonstrance, they assembled 
to vindicate and establish more luminously than ever in 
the light of Scripture the doctrines contested. Popish 
bigotry in the government of France forbade the attend- 
ance of a Protestant representation from that quarter, 
yet the summary of evangelical Christendom was never 
so full in meeting as on that occasion, and never so free 
from acrimonious debate. And yet the result of delib- 
eration there, descending as a heritage to Reformed 
churches, never depended on a ratification by constitu- 
encies of Synods or Presbyteries, or bishops below in any 



518 CHURCH aOVERNMENT. 

or all of the churches represented. Hei'e, again, '^the 
whole Church/' was primary as a body, and power of 
doctrine went downward to the parts instead of upward, 
as built on a congeries of particular churches below 
which waited to confirm and sustain it. Arbitration 
like that has its force in equity more than by the con- 
sent of parties in conclusion. 

The Reformed Church in France had a National 
Synod, representing the martyred churches of Pres- 
byterian formation. A creed and standing rules of 
government, discipline and worship had been adopted 
as the constitution, which was adhered to with singular 
faithfulness and precision, but the deputies were not 
mastered by its letter, which was their own production 
and alterable at their own good pleasure. They had no 
Barrier Act to limit and reduce the original and originat- 
ing powers of that renowned Huguenot representation. 
The deputies convened with a consciousness of power 
derived immediately from Christ above, without alle- 
giance to man or man-made constitutions of their ow-n, 
or instructions from provincial Synods or Classes or 
Consistories combined. Derived from the Head, and 
reserved from the members in particular, the w^ill of 
that consecrated body was their symbol of sovereignty. 
This appeared in the language of that initiating vow 
with which the deputies assembled : " "We promise be- 
fore God to submit ourselves to all that may be con- 
cluded and determined by your Holy Assembly, to ol)ey 
and execute it to the utmost of our power, being per- 
suaded that God will preside among you and lead you 
by his Holy Spirit into all truth and equity by the rule 
of his word for the good and edification of his Church, 



IMPORTANCE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 519 

to the glory of his great Dame ; which we humbly beg 
of his Divine Majesty, in our daily prayers." * 

In this entire collation we see that a total representa- 
tion precedes a partial one as we think of the Church in 
her primaries of council, that the expansive ideal is more 
churchly than the local, that the communion of churches 
must be a postulate of unity with which to begin the 
organization of particular churches, instead of an after- 
thought when these are multiplied in the neighborhood 
or the nation. We see, also, that the colonial planting 
of Presbyterianism in America, beginning without a 
written constitution of our own, was invigorated and 
propelled by the primal forces of Dort, Westminster 
and Scotland in their " whole-Church " deliverances as 
the scattered sheep in this wilderness were gathered into 
particular churches. The first organization of Presby- 
tery was a General Assembly in which these churches 
were represented, and soon afterward, when other forma- 
tions of like elderships were added, the whole sphere was 
called a "Synod," and this body, constituted from all the 
Presbyteries, exercised its general authority in 1729 by 
adopting unanimously the Westminster Confession of 
Faith and Catechisms. This adopting act was subscribed 
by all the ministers present, eighteen in number, and 
made the condition henceforth of admission to minis- 
terial comnmnion and authority, without being sent 
down to the Presbyteries or the individual churches 
for sanction or concurrence. Unlike the cono^re^ational 
covenant in each separate church, to be subscribed by 
every member, official or unofficial, the Presbyterian 
covenant is adopted only by the official representatives 
of all the churches gathered together in council, while 
* Quick's Synodicon, vol. i. p. 478. 



620 CHURCH GOVERNME^'T. 

the liberty of dissent to any extent short of scandal or 
disorder has been left to the professing people — "all 
such as we have grounds to believe Christ will at last 
admit to the kingdom of heaven." 

We may therefore append to this indication of princi- 
ples and facts underlying the whole fabric of Presby- 
terian formation several corollaries of practical import- 
ance to the symmetry and safety of our scriptural system. 

(1) The General Assembly, in its nature, must possess 
the power of eminent domain among the judicatories and 
churches of this denomination — that is, though all other 
courts below it, and set oif from time to time by its au- 
thority in representing all the churches, must be sharply 
defined and limited respectively by the written constitu- 
tion, which details their subsidiary province precisely as 
they work together in helpful performance of the duty 
assigned to the whole Church, yet this whole Church, 
in the General Assembly which represents it, cannot be 
exhausted in power by its own definitions delivered. 
There must always be a reserved authority for exigences 
that men cannot forecast. No prevision of uninspired 
wisdom will ever invent a flexibility of charter in con- 
stitutions on paper which is adequate for the strain that 
is always coming on the Church in her militant condi- 
tion. Even her best combinations made outside of a 
written constitution may soon prove to be mistaken, 
sending to subvert more than to help the polity and use 
of such an instrument, and the intervention of her para- 
mount authority in reversing and rescinding those unwise 
regulations must not be condemned as unconstitutional, 
assuredly. Much less may it be charged with spiritual des- 
potism in putting forth power in that way which the Lord 
hath given "for edification and not for destruction." 



IMPORTANCE OF THE GENERAL ASISEMBLY. 521 

The power of eminent domain is always a reservation 
for extreme necessities arising in the revolutions of time 
and the world. God has set his Church on a watch- 
tower manned with living witnesses and provided with 
the promise of his Spirit and lively oracles already in 
hand; and when the enemy cometh in like a flood, the 
standard to be lifted up against him is not one of parch- 
ment alone, but of discretionary expedience also, becom- 
ing the situation and the need. Policy in exigences must 
of course never infringe upon the constitution by which 
grantor and grantees are mutually bound, and the exer- 
cise of it beyond the constitutional provisions can hardly 
ever become despotic or destructive because of the best 
conceivable guarantees of moderation and right — the in- 
habitation of the Holy Ghost as a counsellor to be pleased, 
the inspired directory of his own record which is " profit- 
able for correction," and the fact that this General As- 
sembly is a yearly convocation elected anew every twelve- 
month by the churches it governs. 

(2) Dissent from extraordinary measures of this high 
court should never protest with a view to separate from 
the body in dissolution of organic union. Where no 
constitution is wrecked in tiding it over the breakers 
unskilfully, the pilotage may be warned without being 
discharged for want of experience. The old method of 
appealing from an erring council to the next one which 
is better informed is the right way of redress for discon- 
tented parties who remonstrate against the unprecedented 
in proceedings of the General Assembly. 

(3) Subsequent Assemblies are free to change and 
reverse any measure, outside of the constitution, that 
has been ill-advised, mistaken or disproved by the logic 
of events. The reproach of inconsistency, often cast 



622 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

upon the records of our highest judicatory, is unwar- 
rantable, in view of the supreme discretion reposed in 
its nature. When moved, beyond the lines of organic 
law and boundaries of constitutional enactment, to con- 
front new dangers to truth and holiness, and to use un- 
tried weapons taken from adversaries in the combat, it is 
human to err even in the highest places of imperfectly 
sanctified humanity. Our General Assembly has in- 
herited this admission, made at Westminster centuries 
ago. It is her glory instead of her defect, therefore, to 
stand corrected from year to year, although inconsistency 
in her transactions through all contingencies of the past 
is exceptional and rare indeed. 

(4) Exempt from all iron-clad rigidity in her casual 
deliverances beyond a constitution, the secret of true 
progress may be found in this right and power of 
eminent domain. Though she sends ahead no mere 
hypothesis in anything of progress, and becomes of 
necessity empirical in judging opportunities and testing 
the measures of innovation, there is always one hand 
holding fast what has been already attained, and another 
waving at high noon to signalize progress in all the lines 
of fhoughtj in all endeavors of benevolence, in all fulfil- 
ment of prophecy, in all freedom of combination with 
other denominations to spread the gospel and lay founda- 
tions of the Redeemer's kingdom, binding liberty and 
union together in that co-operation which agrees to 
differ and rejoices in the truth, making increase in 
the strength of honest convictions equal to the increase 
of charity in meeting diversities at the house of our 
common Master. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

ORDINANCES OF THE CHURCH. 

ORDINANCES are institutions of divine authority 
relating to the worship of God. A threefold 
divinity must be considered in their nature, common 
to all of them, however distinctive the character of 
each. 

1. They have been dictated by the supreme authority 
of God himself, and must not be abrogated, altered or 
omitted by men at any time or in any circumstances but 
those of impossibility when the observance cannot be 
rendered because of personal unfitness, providential hin- 
drance or excusable inability of obedience. Regulations 
of minor importance may be made by Church authority 
in connection with divine ordinances to supply the facili- 
ties of order, time, place, and even mode of observance, 
which does not obscure nor pervert at all the ordinance 
itself; and these are variable and dispensable and wise 
only and in proportion as they subserve the appre- 
hension of divine authority for the ordinance itself 

2. All divine ordinances are worshipful in their nature. 
Worship is always adoration in act, and, of course, adora- 
tion is active toward God directly. There is only '^one 
Mediator between God and men,'' and he himself is God 
with the sympathies of our nature upon him. Him we 
woi*ship, and the Father in him, spiritually as directly 
also, led by the Spirit, helped and advocated by the 

623 



524 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

Spirit, in this intimate access of adoration to Gocl : 
" But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doc- 
trines the commandments of men." And we may rea- 
sonably note under this declaration of our Lord the 
many familiar interventions of sacerdotalism in our 
day which seem to be worse than ^' in vain '^ for the 
direct and immediate adoration of Jesus — images, cruci- 
fixes, pictures and intercession of saints, dead or alive, 
to help the common people in worshipping God. Human 
art is not divine wisdom, and in its best perfection must 
be daring folly when it puts a hand between the sinner 
and his Saviour, between the soul and God its Maker. 

3. A third element of divinity in true Church ordi- 
nances must be that of propitiation. Every one of 
them bears the mark of atonement made once for all 
by a divine Person. The Object of all adoration must 
open up for us the way to himself, and the truth, the 
life, the sureness, of this way. The sureness must be 
"a covenant by sacrifice." The sacrifice must be of 
infinite value, in which all the treasures of Godhead 
are hidden, and we approach him on this way because 
we are bought to come, and made to come, by the same 
prevenient grace that achieved the redemption. It is 
remarkable that the original Greek word which in its 
plural is translated "ordinances" in Luke i. 6 and else- 
where signifies "justification " as its essential meaning, 
distinguished, on the one hand, from commandment, and 
on the other from condemnation. 

In the letter of this dtxaiojfiay we have justification on 
the ground of righteousness judicially imputed as a char- 
acteristic element in all the ordinances of divine woi-ship. 
And we know "it is God that justifieth." Thus the 
warrant, the worship and the acceptance are all alike 



ORDINANCES OF THE CHURCH. 525 

divine — of God, and not of man : "Ye are come unto 
mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the 
heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of 
ancrels ; to the general assemblv and church of the first 
born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge 
of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect; and 
to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the 
blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than 
that of Abel/^ Heb. xii. 22-24. 

This glorious indication to the Hebrews of New-Tes- 
tament ordinances in their divinity of sanction, use and 
procurement as means of grace to men emphasizes in 
every line the communion of saints, whether in the 
body or out of the body, past, present and future, in 
assemblage with other spirits of glorified creation look- 
ing into these things. We must infer, therefore, pub- 
licity of observance to be the crowning duty of all 
believers in using these means of grace, and that the 
unspeakable benefit of private use is enhanced to each 
one by the participations of a great congregation. 
Though the kingdom of God is within us, and with 
the heart man believeth unto righteousness, yet with 
the mouth confession is made unto salvation in diffus- 
ing its joy to others, and so multiplying our own. 

Enumeration of Ordinances. 
We have this complete in the seventh chapter of our 
Presbyterian Form of Government, as follows : " The 
ordinances established by Christ, the head, in a particular 
church, which is regularly constituted with its proper 
officers, are prayer, singing praises, reading, expounding 
and preaching the w^ord of God, administering baptism 
and the Lord's Supper; public solemn fasting and thanks- 



526 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

giving, catechizing, making collections for the poor, and 
other pious purposes ; exercising discipline ; and blessing 
the people." 

All these ordinances are liturgical, more or less — that 
is, public service rendered for the people, to the people 
and by the people, any of these senses or all of them 
together being included fairly in the term liturgy^ ob- 
viously derived from two Greek words which signify 
" the public " and " work.'^ This compound word is 
Athenian, most probably, in its origin, and is intensely 
personal in its allusion and use at Athens and other 
Greek communities to which it was transferred. The 
classical meaning was never a public document on parch- 
ment, and much less a book, and still less a missal mass- 
book in sacerdotal oblation. It was a capable man of 
means and patriotic devotion of his time and talents and 
wealth to the public need, both in war and in peace — a 
man who thought it mean to give only what the taxation 
required in law without giving more spontaneously to 
the exigences of state until his riches were exhausted, 
and then devolving the task upon the next richest man 
who thought it an honor to succeed him.* It required 
all the eloquence and democratic influence of Demos- 
thenes to reduce that civil liturgy to more equable tax- 
ation and common consecration of the people, yet the 
capabilities, resources and faithfulness of persons con- 
tinued to be, objectively as well as subjectively, the 
liturgies of ancient time. 

Correspondently in Christian time, the witnessing 
apostles made fitness and faithfulness of elders and 
evangelists properly chosen to administer New-Testa- 
ment ordinances to be the liturgies canonically sanctioned 
* See the Dictionaries of Brande and Anthon, both. 



ORDINANCES OF THE CHURCH. 527 

for a world-wide C.'hristicinity ; and such were to be tra- 
ditional liturgies for- all time iudefiuitely future. " Lit- 
urgy'' is the Greek word transferred; "ministry" is 
the same translated. Faithfulness and ability of living 
and successive ministers of the gospel are the true litur- 
gical elements of divine service henceforth and ever : 
" The things that thou hast heard of me among many 
witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who 
shall be able to teach others also ;" " Study to shew thy- 
self approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to 
be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth ;'' " Fol- 
low righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that 
call on the Lord out of a pure heart." 2 Tim. ii. 

When we turn from revelation containing these litur- 
gical suggestions to history in its fabulous tradition, the 
first pravity discovered in Christian worship was found 
in so-called liturgies of the book kind. The liturgies 
of Peter, Matthew, Mark and James are mentioned by 
certain Greek and Roman authors, who reason thus in 
proving them to be genuinely apostolical after making 
the assertion that they were such : '^ They contain prayers 
for the dead ; the actual transmutation of bread and wine 
at the sacrament into the real body and blood of Christ, 
and this transubstantiation offered as a literal sacrifice on 
the altar ; therefore they must have originated from the 
apostles, who, we know, taught these doctrines." 

From the sham pretences of such a logic we turn to 
the pages of authentic history and search in vain for the 
existence of written liturgies anywhere until the fourth 
century of the Christian era. At the beginning of that 
century the emperor Diocletian, a credulous man misled 
by an ambitious son-in-law and instigated by a pagan 
priesthood, began his persecution of the Christians. 



628 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

Being averse to the destruction of life, and liaviug 
them in his army and his court, and even his own 
household, he cautiously restrained the first edict against 
Christians from bloodshed, and ordered only their sup- 
pression by the arrest of their visible prosperity and its 
causes. Offices and all positions of trust and influence 
were to be taken from them, and especially their worship 
was to be hindered by the demolition of their temples 
and burning to ashes of all their sacred books and docu- 
ments and records. 

In the reported execution of that edict mention is 
made of Bibles burned — fragments of canonical Script- 
ure used and kept in their churches — but no mention or 
hint is given of liturgies found and consumed. Not 
even the " Galilean Liturgy '^ was noticed at all, which 
in subsequent history vaunts the conjectural date of 176. 
When we consider the fact that Constantius Chlorus, 
father of Constantine the Great, was then reigning in 
Gaul, a Christian too — as much, at least, as any Caesar 
could be at that time — and an object of special jealousy 
to the Caesars of the East, we must wonder that the 
manual of worship at his court was not signalized in the 
flames of that imperial persecution. On the hypothesis 
of any writing but the Holy Bible, in whole or in part, 
composed for the devotions of Christian worship within 
the first three hundred years, the escape of such a liturgy 
from such a conflagration is inexplicable. 

We come to the conclusion, therefore, that the first 
objective liturgy, in the modern ecclesiastical sense of 
the word, was composed by that renowned and accom- 
plished Basil of Caesarea in Cappadocia who flourished 
about the middle of the fourth century, followed about 
twenty years later by the still more celebrated Chrysos- 



ORDINANCES OF THE CHURCH. 529 

torn of Constautinople. Both of these Fathers were 
great rhetoricians from the schools of Libanius, and 
each of them produced a liturgy with his own name to 
it, still retained, to signify an original production pecu- 
liar to their times and places and characters respectively, 
and therefore not derived at all, in either case, from any 
venerable "common-prayer'' book antecedently com- 
piled. In fact, the prior one of Basil came from his 
pen just as he was drawing up rules and regulations for 
monks in the monasteries he was founding. He was 
himself a rigid ascetic, and wore the habit of a monk 
after he was made an archbishop, and it seemed to be 
his aim to make " regulars " of all worshipping people 
under his authority. 

These two liturgies, though near to each other in time, 
were not regarded as rival productions, each one aspiring 
to the stereotype of canonical fixedness in public wor- 
ship, but, like the conducting of divine service by the 
parochial bishops of our own day, they were subjective 
more than objective, free and voluntary, bearing the 
stamp of each official in particular. Uniformity, how- 
ever, becoming imperial about the same time, soon after- 
ward compelled each bishop to say the same prayers con- 
tinually in the particular church he led. This itself was 
no hardship nor yoke upon the freedom of worship in- 
consistent with the ca})abilities and culture of an officiat- 
ing minister, as long as the same prayers were composed 
by himself according to the need and circumstances of 
his parish. To repeat with memoriter utterance the 
same original prayer when it is the ''long" or general 
prayer may be truly liturgical, as it is subjective and 
individual. 

Probably no minister of the present century was more 

34 



630 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

liturgical, in the true scriptural sense, than John McMil- 
lan, the pioneer and patriarch of Presbyteriauisra in 
Western Pennsylvania, of whom Daniel Webster said, 
"Truly, he was a voice crying in the wilderness." His 
praying and his preaching were signalized in making 
that wilderness blossom as the rose, in raising up, almost 
without any books, by his own tuition, a powerful min- 
istry, and in founding institutions of learning which 
through almost half the century furnished nearly one- 
fifth of all the ministers on this continent who belonged 
to this denomination. Yet his " long prayer " on the 
Lord's day was never one of " irregular and extravagant 
effusions,'' but, on the contrary, it was almost invariably 
the same prayer in topics and scriptural expression — so 
much that his rustic hearers could mark the time by the 
course of his utterance and know in his phraseology how 
near he was to the end. But at the close of his sermon 
the short prayer was always rich and fresh, varied and 
pertinent, on every subject and occasion. All this was 
perfect liturgy without a book. Liturgy was in that 
living man himself — his personal ability, his good sense, 
his practical piety and devout fervor of soul in dispens- 
ing ordinances, combining all the value to his people of 
"common prayer" with the quickening interest of sup- 
plication ever new in adaptation to things both " old and 
new " among the treasures of scriptural preaching. 

Liturgy, as defined in the modern ecclesiastical sense 
by standard lexicographers — "A formulary of public 
worship; the ritual according to which the religious 
services of a church are performed " — is not a scriptural 
definition at all. In the Bible this w^ord, whether noun, 
verb or participle in its use, indicates always the ministry 
or ministering of living and w^ell-qualified men person- 



ORDINANCES OF THE CHURCH. 531 

ally exerted. By a beautiful metonymy the Attic orig- 
inal is reproduced in the New-Testament morning of 
Christian worship. (See the admirable commentary of 
Dr. Joseph Addison Alexander on Acts xiii. 2 : *' Its 
true sense is the general one expressed in the translation 
* ministering/ in the discharge of their official functions, 
with particular reference to public worsliip " {htroupyou^) 
— "his ministers a flame of fire." Heb. i. 7.) 

Of course, " ministering " extends the liturgical sense 
to all the ordinances enumerated above, and the specific 
variations peculiar to each will be noticed more fully 
when we come to explain them in detail. But once for 
all we must notice that no " formulary " prepared by 
inspired or uninspired man is ever hinted in Holy 
Scripture as given for exact and verbal uniformity in 
the tenor of sanctuary service, and we therefore may 
well rev^erse the dictum of South when he wrote, " The 
extemporizing faculty is never more out of its element 
than in the pulpit,'^ and write here that the canons of 
canting uniformity are never more out of their element 
than in the pulpit, for the very same reason that " ex- 
temporizing " is condemned — the lack of premeditation. 
We never can serve God and the people there with what 
costs us nothing, and surely there should be more of cost 
in that sublime vocation to prayer and preaching than a 
mechanical and easy exercise of turning over leaves of a 
book given to one simply to be read where it has been 
read a thousand times before, and along with a manu- 
script which may perhaps be made of his own thoughts 
in preacliing not more than twenty minutes long. 

On the other hand, all experience and observation will 
attest the fact that premeditation is inseparable from what 
is called extempore preaching, and is a supreme necessity 



532 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

once- for all, and specially continued every week to the 
preaclier — any preacher fit for the pulpit and worthy of 
the place — premeditation to pray as well as preach, and 
even to read the word of God aright in its letter, which 
we shall see in dissertation on ^'reading'' as a particular 
ordinance. The ruminating labor of thought and solici- 
tude of soul which become the minister of earnest mind 
and heart whose liturgy is alive in ready utterance with- 
out a book have no parallel in painstaking preparation 
for public speech in any other department of human 
eloquence; and so the true liturgist, whose administra- 
tion ponders what he has to say in connection with 
every ordinance, will be ready for "the times" as well 
as time, representing the age, the culture, the change, 
the " operation " of God's hand in the present as well 
as past experience of his people. 

The welling of deep thought, the pertinence of season- 
able application, the vivid emotions of originality, the 
vital transitions of analysis and good order, the direct- 
ness of good speech, the unction and pathos, — all belong 
to the liturgy of living ministers who prepare without 
manual, but with all their might, as becomes the weak- 
ness and contrition of mortal man in stepping to the 
pulpit most acceptably to God and his disciples. Luther 
trembled as he went up ; Summerfield palpitated as he 
touched the pulpit door. Not, by any means, that read- 
ing homily from paper and "collects'' from books two 
hundred years old, and yet the same, are to be forbidden 
by any law or to be disparaged as unprofitable to pious 
worshippers who prefer that way, but because that way 
is not liturgical in the scriptural sense of New-Testa- 
ment liturgy, being objective more than subjective, be- 
cause the living minister is more con substantiated with 



ORDINANCES OF THE CHUnCII. 533 

gotten by heart" and 
readily recited from a fond memory than when it is 
toned with the best measures of prose and poetry while 
the eyes of the reader fail to gather animation from the 
faces of the people. 

It may be added, also, in this connection, that versa- 
tility of thought in due preparation for living liturgies, 
which corrects itself in premeditation without book in 
hand until it is rightly matured, makes a ripe ministra- 
tion comparatively ; for extemporized manuscript, as it is 
hurried by the hebdomadal necessity of a parochial 
bishop, is often the most shallow of all decent prepara- 
tion for the first day of the week. Attenuated stuff on 
paper is commonly worse than extempore gibberish in 
speaking on the part of an educated minister, and yet 
the blame of thinness must be attached to the method 
more than to the man. He has no time to think more 
and more deeply, nor to revise and correct the improvi- 
sated pages before him, which, it may be, have not been 
quite written out when the bell is rung for public ser- 
vice. Machine preaching and praying will not save 
time, but lose it, in the liturgical ministrations of the 
man whose premeditation possesses him in mind and 
heart more than he possesses it in book and folio. 

True " ministering/' the right translation of true 
liturgies, will never be perfunctory in performance 
— that is, according to the old definition of Bishop 
Hall: ^^Done only for the sake of getting through, 
regardless how done.'' The "well done" may be well 
enough when the minister is not capable of more than 
writing out, with full mind and warm heart, his medi- 
tated thoughts to be read in public just as they are 
written. The highest regard for his people and the 



634 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

presentation of truth and the effect of his composition 
when he himself looks at them through an intervention 
of paper only may consist even with eminent and true 
service in the pulpit, but a still ^' more excellent way '^ is 
the direct way a servant takes in waiting on his master. 
The master's word is always impromptu ; its urgency will 
wait for no plans of facile obedience, or until the minister 
puts on a badge or dons a livery or shoulders a burden 
of his own. Method is madness when it delays or en- 
cumbers "the swift of foot^^ who run as "swift mes- 
sengers" to rescue men that are perishing in sins. 
Directness of speech is more direct when it is not 
written out beforehand. Dr. Watts illustrated this 
in the case of a steward to an English baron who was 
much aggrieved by the insubordination and mischief of 
the servants. When he complained to his lord of their 
conduct, the baron said, " Go, and in my name chide 
them sharply." But the steward said, "I cannot chide 
with my words ; but if your lordship would write a 
chiding, I shall go and read it to them." " The baron 
wrote, the steward read and tlie servants smiled." 

These ordinances of worship are all of them liturgical 
in connection with civil observances of events which are 
providentially ordered in human life. The three of 
these that are most important and signal are birth, mar- 
riage and death. Here Church and State, private and 
public interest, legal and social record, meet together to 
do what might be done by each of these distinctions 
alone, yet best done when they are conjoined and 
solemnized by the offices of religion, which are the 
ordinances of worship, prayer, preaching and benedic- 
tion especially. 

1. Birth sends to the man of God for some recognition 



ORDINANCES OF THE CHURCH. 635 

of divine ownership at the advent of an immortal creat- 
ure : " Behold, all souls are mine ; as the soul of the 
father so also the soul of the son is mine." Ezek. 
xviii. 4. "Lo, children are an heritage of the L/ord." 
Ps. cxxvii. 3. The signet of this natural possession 
and covenanted heritage was made at the first organiza- 
tion of the visible Church in the family of Abraham and 
in the rite of circumcision. The application of that seal 
was public as it could be made : "All that were born in 
his house, and all that were bought with his money, 
every male among the men of Abraham's house.'^ Here 
was household initiation at the beginning of ecclesia, and 
so it was continued in public ministration to all ages of 
human life from ninety years to eight days old: "And 
Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days 
old, as God had commanded him.'' 

Publication, or the liturgy of the seal requiring greater 
expansion to all families of the earth and both sexes of 
humanity, our Lord substituted for circumcision, a world- 
Xvide convenience in sealing the family covenant : "Teach- 
ing all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Here we see 
the two ordinances of preaching and baptism manifestly 
proper at the birth of any person, male or female, and 
at the house of Cornelius the centurion, a devout man, 
where the Gentiles were first admitted to sealing ordi- 
nances, we have the scope of baptism as well as instruc- 
tive preaching, plainly comprehending the whole house- 
hold of Cornelius with " his kinsmen and friends," age 
and nonage assembled together at his call to receive in- 
struction and baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. 
" Now therefore are we all here present before God, to 
hear all things that are commanded thee of God," said 



536 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

Cornelius to Peter, and while the latter was yet speak- 
ing as a witness for Christ " the Holy Ghost fell on all 
them which heard the word." Then Peter exclaimed, 
" Can any man forbid water, that these should not be 
baptized, w^hich have received the Holy Ghost as well 
as we?" 

Here, undoubtedly, is intimated the legitimate exten- 
sion of baptism to as wide a variety of age, at least, as 
the household of Abraham contained, where the ancient 
seal was administered alike to subjects who were ninety 
years old and infants that were but eight days old. Sus- 
ceptibility of the Holy Ghost in his regenerating agency 
is all that conditions Christian baptism for birth in the 
family of any " devout man who fears God, with all his 
house." " The ordinances of heaven " embrace alike 
stupendous magnitude and imperceptible minuteness. 
The same eternal Spirit that garnished the heavens 
with great stars and little ones — so little that their 
light is lost on the Milky Way — has condescended to 
do likewise in ^'the church that is in the house;" and 
say, as Peter did in the house of Cornelius, Let ^'them 
be baptized in the name of the Lord." 

The liturgical performance of this rite on the occasion 
of birth requires, of course, an assembly at least of the 
household, and as many " kinsmen and friends " as can 
be called together to witness the solemnity and unite in 
supplication for the thing signified by the application of 
baptismal water, the sprinkling of atoning blood, the re- 
generating and sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost, and 
all the blessings of covenanted mercy and grace. Private 
baptism is not liturgic, as it ought to be, and lay baptism 
is not the ordinance at all. Surely in ^' ministering " a 
minister is required, and the minister is an official person 



ORDINANCES OF THE CHURCH. 537 

alike in Scripture and in ecclesiastical diction. Baptism 
is belittled, indeed, if not a mockery, when it is put 
above its own official dispensation. Made so essential 
to the salvation of an infant that it must be done with 
or without an authorized person to do it, this great ordi- 
nance of worsliip is changed to a fetich of vain supe- 
stition. 

It is only in the '^public service" and authorized min- 
istration of household baptism that this ordinance can be 
paralleled by the analogous treatment of birth in the 
civil oversight through all civilized countries of the 
world, and especially our own. The family circle, the 
school district, the State, the nation, — all make np their 
vital statistics with the beginning as well as end of 
human life in reckoning with particular attention. 
Courts of justice, both in the equities of chancery and 
• in the statutes of law, inquire diligently about the birth, 
in all its circumstances of time and place, genealogy and 
heirship, as they determine right and settle the claims of 
generations. Even if the family covenant had not de- 
scended, from Abraham to Peter, as this apostle declared 
it had fully and with wider extension than ever, nature 
itself would have cried out for something in the room 
of circumcision to signalize with offices of religion the 
first epoch of each personality in '' a chosen generation, 
a royal priesthood, an holy nation." 

If Christianity does not call for the census of nativity 
and promptly proceed to recognize with ritual honor 
those who are born within her pale, interposing for the 
gospel with an ordinance of worship to greet them and 
own them and mark them and seek them as her own, 
then, truly, the seed of the Church is an orphanism, 
and " the mother of us all " is recreant with indiffer- 



538 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

ence to family record and Cluirch continuity at the crisis 
when a mother's peculiar attention and special care must 
be engaged as it is never possible again to be in the career 
of human life. The baptism of infant children couches 
in it the identity of the Church under all dispensations, 
and the analogy of all wise, humane and cultured econo- 
mies in forwarding the best civilization for the popula- 
tions of our globe. 

2. Marriage, the next most important event of life to 
youth at maturity, like the birth of sons and daughters, 
must be claimed alike by the Church and the State and 
be mixed in its relations to either. It is a civil contract 
and a sacred mystery together. A dissolution of the 
contract by any court or forum of civil justice cannot 
absolve the moral obligation from its binding force in 
the authority of the Church except for cause which 
has been specified in Holy Scripture. The union of 
parties in matrimonial bonds, like that of a regenerate 
soul with Christ in heaven, is perpetual as it is pure and 
sincere. Only the demonstration that such regeneracy 
is false by full discovery of hidden crime or flagitious 
guilt, according to Bible mention, will reconcile the 
Church to the separations of divorce. 

In Christendom for the first three hundred years 
marriage seems to have been simply ecclesiastical in 
the mode of its consummation, solemnized by the min- 
isters of Christ alone. " Only in the Lord '^ was the 
marriage motto prefixed to everything about the solem- 
nity — the parties, the vows, the witnesses and the official 
ministration. The early Fathers, from Tertullian to 
Chrysostom, were in unison with such an emphasis on 
marriage. Equally religious, or more so, was the ante- 
nuptial contract — the espousals, the betrothment, what 



ORDINA^X'ES OF THE CHURCH. 539 

we now call the engagement, of parties to each other ; 
and the actual formality of the wedding was mostly iu 
the form of benediction by Christian ministers and con- 
gratulation by Christian witnesses. But after the Church 
herself was wedded to the State by imperial domina- 
tion, all the ordinances of a divinity above were levelled 
to the plane of secular appointments by man, the civil 
contract in marriage, — which in itself was both natural 
and right — became the preponderating element and 
gradually pushed the ministers of religion aside, mak- 
ing the sanctions of Christianity an empty ceremony 
and perverted sacrament. 

This profaneness continued until the time of Charle- 
magne. The monasticism which regarded marriage as 
impure and religiously unholy had now spread its 
cloisters over the Christendom of Europe, Africa and 
Asia, and the consequent necessity of celibacy in the 
secular clergy also — now enforced by council after 
council made up of their own kind — only stamped 
the debasement deeper, until that which the apostle of 
the Gentiles had declared to be " honorable in all ^'' 
(Heb. xiii. 4) was now sunk beneath the dignity of a 
civil right alone to confirm a bargain of any sort. But 
reaction came with Charlemagne, that magnificent states- 
man of the Middle Ages. He knew enougli of the Bible 
— which, it is said, he loved to read and teach as much 
as Alcuin did — to see that all was out of joint in Church 
and State and social interests of every kind as Ions: as 
marriage was inferior holiness to be disparaged and dis- 
honored so. He looked upon it as the main prop of his 
empire, and therefore the civil element and aspect of its 
importance were not overlooked by the sagacious eye 
which surveyed a line of transition, from the faded 



640 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

cultus of ancient Christianity in his time, to the worse 
fanaticism of mediaeval darkness and agitation, come, 
and yet to come, with worse degeneracy. He could 
not go transversely at this line and become reformer 
in restoring the simplicity of heroic ages in the Church, 
for that prevailed by suffering, which w^as not his temper, 
even with the cross upon his banners. The weapons of 
his warfare were carnal, and not mighty through God to 
the pulling down of strong superstition. But the prac- 
tical wisdom of his mind could see that the family insti- 
tute was the basis of all temporal good and stable empire, 
and must contain a celestial mystery which ministei*s of 
religion should solemnize, while functionaries of the 
State would sufficiently recognize, under the hands of 
a priesthood, the inviolable compact in marriage for this 
life which all civil welfare and safety required. 

Accordingly, tliis potentate compelled the clergy to 
honor in the people what they dishonored in themselves. 
Civil marriage was forbidden, and the reaction, as usual, 
was carried to the opposite extreme of utter prohibition 
— so much that imperial authority denounced the civil 
contract alone as mere concubinage. And so much has 
a sacred mystery been restored to the ceremony of wed- 
lock ever since that the parenthasis of Paul in the New- 
Testament revelation (^' I speak concerning Christ and 
the church ^^) remains infixed, the sentiment of all intel- 
ligent observers, whether papal, Protestant or neither, to 
this day. 

The great Reformation with common consent has re- 
adjusted the solemnity of marriage to the right balance 
and proportion of the two characters, civil and religious, 
which compose it by discarding alike the monkery and 
paganism that Constantine allowed and the ritual priest- 



ORDINANCES OF THE CHURCH. 541 

liness that Charlemagne commanded. Probably the best 
expression of this equipoise to be found is in the Direct- 
ory for Worship adopted by the Westminster Assembly 
of Divines in the seventeenth century and made one of 
our own symbols now and still. See the eleventh chapter 
and first two sections, as follows : 

" I. Marriage is not a sacrament ; nor peculiar to the 
Church of Christ. It is pro})er tliat every common- 
wealth, for the good of society, make laws to regulate 
marriage; which all citizens are bound to obey. 

"II. Christians ought to marry in tlie Lord : there- 
fore it is fit that their marriage be solemnized by a 
lawful minister ; that special instruction may be given 
them, and suitable prayers made, when they enter into 
this relation.'' 

The second section above was resisted, indeed, by the 
learned Selden, in his book entitled The Hebrew Wife, 
because he was Erastian, a lawyer and writer at the head 
of an Erastian party in the turbulent time of the Com- 
monwealth, which party was utterly opposed to clerical 
prerogative and struggled to restore a civil ascendency 
over everything in religion but mere instruction and 
persuasion. Even all the ordinances of worship at 
marriage were proscribed by that infatuation. 

These are preaching, prayer, blessing and discipline. 
The first of these includes on this occasion, with the 
utmost brevity, instruction and exhortation ; the second, 
adoration and entreaty ; the third, Old -Testament or 
New-Testament form of benediction ; the fourth, a 
challenge at the first and admonition at the last. These 
four elements may be distributed variously in worship- 
ping God at the solemnity of marriage, and skill ex- 
quisite as it is devout will be needed to do it well. 



642 CHURCH OOVERNMENT. 

"Words here, not things, are best to convey your mean- 
ing : " \Yords fitly spoken are like ap})les of gold in 
pictures of silver.'^ A ring is not an apple, and what 
does it mean? No phrasing of the sense could be more 
ambiguous. In the fashions of ancient Christianity the 
ring is mentioned as annulus pronubus — something given 
before marriage, privately, to seal the fidelity of parties 
in betrothal, but, of course, in that sense it is not in the 
liturgy of marriage, which must be a '^ public service." 

The publication of marriage is always indispensable, 
alike in the purpose and in the consummation, wherever 
it is to be solemnized in a Christian community. Private 
marriage cannot be liturgical ; clandestine marriage can- 
not be allowed. Ordinances of divine worship, like their 
adorable Master, " cannot be hidden," and without these 
wedlock is hardly civil, and is decidedly pagan. 

III. The third main event of human life on earth is 
the end of it in time. What birth becrins and marriao-e 
doubles death dissolves in the separation of body and 
soul. And here comes an epoch of unchangeableness 
appointed in the destiny of man beyond which our 
existence will be continuous only in the development 
of germs that never die. Probation is over and eternal 
life goes on, immortal, with or without a body and with 
life more and more abundantly given. Probation means 
change ; and if its process of trial be not determined at 
the first death, it will not be at the second. Beginning 
again and again, the series of indecisive proof would 
never end, and all eternity must wait for the finish of 
moral probation, precluding the moral and intellectual 
progress which begins with what is fixed, in tuition, 
before death occurs : " In the place where the tree 
falleth, there it shall be." Eccl. xi. 3. This awful 



ORDINANCES OF THE CHURCH. 543 

position which dcatli occupies in the moral govornnient 
of God should gather to its requiem many of his ordi- 
nances — the reading, the preaching, the singing, the 
prayer, the benediction. Where these cluster and crowd 
tlie time there is scarcely a minimum left for words of 
panegyric on the deceased. And this is just as it ought 
to be. The funeral discourse ouglit seldom or never to 
be memorial sermon. If this be needed for history, let 
curiosity wait for the proper time. And let the burial- 
service be a solemnity of reverential and adoring wor- 
ship. Anything like biography at this conjuncture will 
be but curious diversion of soul. It will hardly ever 
satisfy the mourners with adequacy and completeness, 
and will hardly ever fail to waken criticism in othei-s 
who subtract from euloo:v even more than balancino; de- 
fects ; and thus may be lost the great advantage of a 
striking event in providence to enliven with fresh 
interest eternal truths of grace on which we live now 
and for ever. 

Narrative, therefore, is wisely funereal as it turns new 
light on themes of preaching — the vanity of life, the 
wages of sin, the certainty of death, the end of proba- 
tion, the death of death in the death of Christ, good 
hoj>e through grace, the redeeming of time, the comfort 
of the Spirit, the consolations of the gospel and the 
triumphs of the resurrection. In short, all the sub- 
lime beliefs of Christianity may converge illumination 
at the rite of Christian burial. The ordinance of read- 
ing without note or comment is itself so abundantly sup- 
plied for the same subject with pages both of the Old 
Testament and the New that the richest variety of perti- 
nence to the occasion may be found in reading alone. 
And so it is of psalmody and song — old and "new 



544 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

songj" plaintive and triumphant, sung in the sanctuary 
below, where sorrow weeps, and sung in the sanctuary 
above, where "the Man of sorrows, acquainted with 
grief," hath ascended and called the sympathies of 
heaven to respond: "Blessed are tlie dead which die 
in the Lord from henceforth ;" " God shall wipe away 
all tears from their eyes ; and there shall be no more 
death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there 
be any more pain : for the former things are passed 
away." 

But prayer on the event of death is the chief ordi- 
nance of worship through all the ages of mortality 
among Christians. No other approach to "the King 
eternal " can come so near him or touch his sovereignty 
with such intimacy of utterance, bowing at the inmost 
shrine of his decrees and there becoming itself a thing 
decreed as condition precedent to real success at a throne 
of grace in reference to mysteries of providence : "And 
it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; 
and while they are yet speaking, I will hear ;" " Your 
Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before 
ye ask him." Both old and new dispensations thus 
bind prayer up with inscrutable relations of oracle and 
event. 

Yet prayer is not to be offered for the dead themselves 
except in thanksgiving, which is only a part of prayer ; 
and even this part is proper only at the death of true 
believers, and for the living, not the dead, in availability. 
We thank God for the example of living to his glory 
which they leave to us, and for the victory over sin and 
death which they achieved by faith and the strength of 
his arm. This gratitude in prayer, expressed on the 
death of the righteous, became, however, probably a 



ORDINANCEi^ OF THE CHURCH. 545 

trausition-puiiit in history for the beginniug of that 
absurd sii})er.stitioii " prayers for the dead and to the 
dead." That austere enthusiast of the second century 
Tertullian was probably the first to mention it when he 
called the death-day of martyrs their birthday, and sug- 
gested natal honors to be rendered yearly at their tombs. 
Thanks for the instant glorification of immaculate souls 
at death soon led a vain imagination to speculate on the 
case of imperfect saints at their departure from the body 
without full preparation for a welcome to the blessedness 
of heaven. Some intermediate paradise was invented 
where they should be detained for a complete purgation, 
and probation there called back probation here to help 
it through by prayer and eucharistic sacrifice. 

" Purgatory " came from the loss of sound theology 
in regard to the distinction between justification and 
sanctification — the latter gradual, and the former with- 
out degrees. All the glory of Nicene Christianity was 
overshadowed by the darkness and confusion of igno- 
rance on this radical subject. Even Augustine prayed 
for his mother, Monica, after her death, supposing 
that, perfect as she seemed to be on earth, some unseen 
mixture of sin in her soul needed intercession still by 
the sacerdotal son surviving her. How much better 
than the best orthodoxy of that ''Augustan age'' is the 
"Shorter Catechism" in our hands! — ^'The souls of 
believers are, at their death, made perfect in holiness, 
and do immediately pass into glory ; and their bodies, 
being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till 
the resurrection." 

Becoming this assurance will be the doxology of bless- 
ing to all surviving believers : " The love of God, the 
grace of Christ and the communion of the Holy Ghost." 

3.^ 



546 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

A more special form than this epitome of all benediction 
is given by the apostle Paul at the close of his letter to 
the Hebrews, where he says, " Pray for us" (not for the 
dead) ; " Now the God of peace, that brought again from 
the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 
through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you 
perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you 
that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus 
Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." 



INDEX 



Aaron, called for his eloquence, 327, 
337. 

Abraham, organization of the Church 
begun in his family, 58. 

Admission to the visible Church, 445, 
446. 

Adrian, Pope, 166. 

Alcuin, 539. 

Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, 
141. 

Alexander, Joseph Addison, Dr., on 
Matt. 18:15-18, 55; on "an- 
gel," 184, 185 ; on " ministered " 
(Acts 13:2), 531. 

Alexander, Pope, 171. 

Alexander Severus, Life of, 402. 

Alexandria, catechetical school of, 
141. 

Altar, none in Jewish synagogue or 
primitive Christian church, 95 ; 
reinstated in church, 204. 

Ambrose, on " Peter," " rock" (Matt. 
16:18), 159; on "the name of 
' apostles,' " 189 ; titnluB of, 241 ; 
on ruling elders, 331; on dea- 
cons, 366 : election of, 408. 

Ames, Dr., 499. 

Anabaptism, 70, 110, 117, 123. 

Anacletus, 164. 

Ananias, 134. 

Anarchy conducive to false doctrine, 
29, 30. 

Andover question, 492, 501. 

Andrew, 191. 

Angel, different meanings of, 183; 
of the synagogue, 18.3 ; in Reve- 
lation, 184: not a prelate, 185. 

Anglican Church, claim of catholi- 
city, 14; use of term "church," 
66 ; lacks provision for discip- 
line, 68, 69; possesses chief 
"note" of a true Church, 69, 
70; its hierarchy at first civil, 
173, then "apostolic," 173, 174; 
Ordinal of, 247 ; definition of 
sacrament, 427; theory of ordi- 
nation, 428; convocation, 465, 
466. 



Antioch, roference from, 479-488. 

Apollos, 134. 

Appeal, right of, 46, 47, 463, 494. 

Apostle, ditferent senses of, 145, 146. 

Apostles, the, special qualifications 
of, 147, 148; chief errand to bear 
witness, 149-151, 175,176,411, 
412; equality in rank, 152-160; 
no successors in oflice, 160-172, 
175-191 ; fabled dioceses of, 191, 
192; on ordination, 203, 205; la- 
ter use of terra, 189, 190. 

Apostle-bishop, 190. See Bishop. 

Apostolic Fathers, 308. 

Apostolic succession, two schemes 
of, 160, 161 : papal scheme refu- 
ted, 161-172: prelatic scheme re- 
futed, 173, 200; no foundation 
in Scripture, nor in primitive 
Church history, 248 ; Nicene ori- 
gin of, 248. 

"Apt to teach," breadth of meaning 

of, 224, 280, 281, 298, 335, 336, 

497: qualification of "ruling" 

. as well as " teaching " elder, 332, 

338-341. 

Archbishops, created by Constantine, 
271. 

Archdeacons, 371. 

Arminianism, 517. 

Association, in Congregationalism, 
449. 

Athanasian doctrine of Christ, 21, 
22. 

Augsburg Confession, 68, 

Augustine, on the Church and Script- 
ure, 18 ; maintains private right 
to read the Scriptures, 138; on 
hierarchic despotism, 163 ; influ- 
ences Zosimus, 169; on " apos- 
tles," 189; titulm of, 241; op- 
poses confirmation by diocesan 
bishops, 254 ; writes to the " cler- 
gy " and " elders," 331 ; prayed 
lor the dead, 545. 

Augustinian doctrine of church- 
membership, 22. 

AuxcntiuB, bishop of Milan, 408. 

547 



548 



INDEX. 



Avignon, 162. 

Babylon, 167. 

Baillie, commissioner to Westmin- 
ster Assembly, 347. 

Bancroft, Archbishop, asserted di- 
vine right of bishops, 173, 174. 

Baptism, proper subjects of, 44; or- 
dinance of profession, 67, 118, 
123; heritage of the household, 
98 ; extent of its ministration, 
114; constitutes membership in 
visible Church, 122, 123, 256; 
disparaged by rite of confirma- 
tion, 253-255 ; not to be repeated, 
253 ; to be administered by a 
" minister " or " teaching elder," 
256,345,536,537: the New-Tes- 
tament seal of the family cove- 
nant, 535 ; a liturgical ordinance, 
536, 537. 

Baptism, household, privilege of 
baptized members, 111, 112. 
See Sponsors. 

Baptism of infants, authority for, 
41 ; rejected by Baptists, 68 : 
shows the identity of the Church 
in all dispensations, 538. 

Baptists, their spiritual life, 64; 
anomalous position, 66, 67 ; dis- 
cipline, 68. 

Baptized persons, privileges of, 99 ; 
government ol^ll7-127. 

Barnabas, ordination of, 221 ; in what 
sense an "apostle," 178. 

Barrier Act, 22, 516. 

Basil, 138 : Liturgy of, 528, 529. 

Bede, the Venerable, 195. 

Belgic Confession, 517. 

Bellarmine, on the Church, 54; on 
alleged primacy of Peter, 159, 
160 : legacy of, 162 ; denies apos- 
tolic office to bishops, 175; on 
the election of '* the seven," 411. 

Benediction, a liturgical ordinance, 
526, 534, 541, 543, 545, 546. 

Beza, on "the church" (Matt. 18 : 17), 
55 ; on KaTaAeYea^w, 384. 

Bezaleel, 351. 

Birth, within the pale of the Church, 
calls for ecclesiastical recogni- 
tion, 97, 98: by baptism, 534- 
537 ; civil analogy, 537, 538. 

Bishop, New Testament and early 
patristic synonym of presbyter 
or elder, U, 94, 191, 245-248, 



273, 308, 334; Scripture identity 
conceded by prelacy, 247 ; in- 
cludes two classes, teaching and 
ruling, 219; specially denotes 
presbyter of a particular church, 
190, 208;distinguisiiestheteach- 
ing elder, 282, 327 ; elected by 
the people, 225; qualifications 
of, 246 ; scriptural and primitive 
jurisdiction of, 267-269: distinct 
from evangelist, 273 ; commis- 
sioned to ordain, 273 ; Ignatian 
use of term, 311-316; title of 
Presbyterian pastor, 186. See El- 
ders, Preshyter, Presbyter-bishop. 

Bishops, "apostolic" or diocesan, 
190, 191, 194: created by Con- 
stantine, 210, 271 ; alleged com- 
mission of, 212; usurpations of, 
216 ; privileges alleged and refu- 
ted, 249-276 ; not scriptural, 244, 
245; nor primitive, 309, 310; 
quarrels of, 271. 

Bishops, parochial, claim superiority 
of rank, 208 : growth of power 
of, 269, 327-329 ; ordination of, 
402. 

Bohemian Brethren, had ruling el- 
ders, 332. 

Boston platform, 460. 

Brown, Brownism, Brownist, 64, 
448, 500. 

Burnet, Bishop, 35, 196, 198, 288. 

Butler, Bishop, 196, 197. 

C^sAR Borgia, 171. 

Calvin, allowed hierarchy in Eng- 
land, 12; on "the church" 
(Matt. 18; 17), 55; tests of 
the true Church, 64, &b ; on 
Romanism, 65, 66; particular- 
ized the term "church," 66; on 
discipline, 69 ; differed with 
other Reformers on terms of 
communion, 101 ; on confirma- 
tion, 252 ; instituted annual 
election of ruling elders, 347 ; 
on deaconess Phoebe, 380. 

Calvinism, 517. 

Cambridge platform, recognized rul- 
ing eldership. 290; 460. 

Campbell, of Aberdeen, 55. 

Campbell, Thomas and Alexander, 
founders of " The Disciples/' 
435, 436. 

Cardinal deacons, 371. 



INDEX. 



549 



Carthage. See Council. 

Cartwright. Thomas (Martin Mar- 
Prehite), 174; on ''laying on 
of hands," 253, 450, 

Catechism, Shorter, death of believ- 
ers. 545. 

Catechisms, Westminster, adopted 
by colonial General Assembly 
and made a test for the minis- 
try, 519, 520; rule for altera- 
tions in, 512. 

Catechizing, a liturgical ordinance, 
526. 

Catholicity, Anglican claim to, 14. 

Celibacy of the clergy, enforced by 

* councils, 539. 

Cenchrea, 378, 379. 

Censure, 121, 12S, 255, 257, 261, 450, 
492. See JJisciplhte. 

Census, civil, analogy of, 125. 

Chalmers, Thomas, on deaconess 
Phoebe, 381. 

Charlemagne, restored the ecclesias- 
tical solemnization of marriage, 
539-541. 

Children, in the Jewish ecclesia, 86; 
church-membership of, 96-99; 
baptism of, 98, 108, 109. See 
Baptism of Infants. 

Chorepiscopi, 270. 

Chrysostom, on private right to read 
the Scriptures, 138; called "the 
thirteenth apostle," 188; on the 
office of " the seven," 363 ; on 
deacons, 366 ; on marriage, 538 ; 
Liturgy of, 528, 529. 

Church, the, visible and invisible, 
7-9 ; one in all dispensations, 
10, 11, 360, 422, 538; its true 
doctrine and government de- 
rived from the Scriptures, 16- 
23 ; derivation and meanings 
of the term, 48-56, 222; par- 
ticular sense, 49, 66; collective 
sense, 44, 49, 50, 471-478 ; gen- 
eral sense, 50 ; spiritual sense, 
60-54; tribunal or judicatory 
sense, 54, 55, 450, 451 ; an or- 
ganization, 10, 314, 315 ; the in- 
viaihle, Westminster definition 
of, 56 ; compared with the vis- 
ible, 57 ; the visible, Westmins- 
ter definition of, 56, 57 ; estab- 
lished under Abraham, 58 ; con- 
tinued under Moses, 59; enlarge- 
ment predicted, 59, 60 ; secta- 



rian divisions in, 61-64; tests 
of a true branch, 64-72 ; mixed 
character of, 72-80, 106 ; constit- 
uency of, 96-142; unity of, 80, 
457-462 ; purity of, 462-466. See 
Ecclevid. 

Church and State, united in tiieoc- 
racy of Israel, 107; separated 
by Christ, 35 ; united under Con- 
stantine, 539. 

Church government, a form neces- 
sary, and of divine origin, 25; 
a priori argument, 26-32 ; ar- 
gument from O.-T. prophecy, 
32-35; principles authorized by 
Christ, 35-37 ; principles gath- 
ered from Scripture and reason, 
37-47, 96 ; patriarchal and hier- 
archical forms, 243 ; Christo- 
apostolic form, 243, 244. 

Church history, use of, 21, 22. 

Church-membership, how constitut- 
ed, 66, 67, 96, 97 ; privileges of, 
99. See Government. 

Church polity, Reformers' indiffer- 
ence to, 12. 

Cicero, 153. 

Circumcision, administered to chil- 
dren, 67, 86 ; argues baptism of 
children, 98 ; supplanted by bap- 
tism, 535-537. 

Class-leader (Methodist) answers to 
ruling elder, 304, 340. 

Clement of Alexandria, on bishops 
and elders, and the heavenly 
state, 323; on presbyters and 
deacons, 412. 

Clement of Rome, on Paul's trav- 
els, 195 ; letter to the Corinthian 
church on revolt against elders, 
308-311; on ordination and elec- 
tion of church officers, 407, 412. 

Clement (pseudo), author of the 
Recognitions, 193. 

Cletus, 164. 

Collections for the poor, etc., a litur- 
gical ordinance, 526. 

Colleffium prenhyterornm, 55. 

Committeemen (Congregationalism), 
substitute for ruling elders, 305. 

Common Prayer-book, not used in 
the primitive Church, 526, 528, 
529 ; not liturgical in the script- 
ural sense, 532. 

Complaint, 42. 

Confession of Faith, alterations in 



650 



INDEX. 



the, 510-512; adoption by Gen- 
eral Assembly of Church of Scot- 
land, 616; its intrinsic authori- 
tativeness, 517; adoption by co- 
lonial General Assembly, and 
made a test for the ministry, 
519. 

*' Confirm," etc., in Scripture, 251. 

Confirmation, prelatic rite of, de- 
fined by Bishop Ilobart, 249- 
251 ; unscriptural, 250-253; dis- 
parages baptism, 253-255 ; dis- 
approved by Jerome and Au- 
gustine, and the North African 
and Greek churches, 254. 

Congregation, used for " church " 
by Tyndale and Cranmer, 48. 

Congregationalism, polity of, 305, 
437 ; induction of pastor, 467 ; 
remedy for ministerial unfaith- 
fulness, 467, 468 : advisory coun- 
cils, 492, 493; ordination, 500; 
in Connecticut and Massachu- 
setts, 489. 

Consistory, j udicatory of a particular 
church, 433, 505. 

Consociation, in Congregationalism, 
449, 489. 

Constantine, age of, Tractarian ap- 
peal to, 14 : called an " apostle," 
189; instituted diocesan bishop- 
rics, 208, and an ecclesiastical 
aristocracy, 270, 271 ; united 
Church a'nd State, 539; al- 
lowed monkery and paganism, 
540. 

Constantinople. See Council. 

Constituency of the Church, 96-142 ; 
membership of infants, 97 ; de- 
pository of Christ's missionary 
• commission, 130-136. See 
Chtirch- membership. 

Constitution, State and Federal, 
analogy of, 30, 31. 

Constitution, The (of Presbyterian 
Church), on Church government, 
25; its relation to the General 
Assembly, 509, 510 ; law of alter- 
ations in, 510-513; in Church 
of Scotland, 516. 

Constitutional importance of the 
General Assembly, 507-522. 

Contra-Reraonstrance, 517. 

Contribution, of church-member, a 
prerequisite for church suffrage, 
128-130. 



Convention, of Prot. Episc. Church 
in America, 466. 

Conversion, prerequisite to worthy 
partaking of Lord's Supper, 
how far discernible, 100. 

Convocation, of Anglican Church, 
465, 466 

Cornelius, baptism of household of, 
115, 116, 535, 536. 

Council, of Carthage, 294, 414; of 
Constantinople, 170,366; at Je- 
rusalem, 93, 94, 156, 157, 258, 
280, .343, 478-488, 514; of Nice, 
208, 329, 402; of Trent, 169, 
414, 415, 427. 

Councils, Roman Catholic, 465; right 
authority of, 500-502 ; post-Ni- 
cene, not truly representative, 
515; made representative again 
by the Reformation, 515. 

Covenants, the family, and the per- 
sonal, 112-114, 149. 

Credible profession, 100-105. 

Cranmer, Archbishop, 48, 173. 

Cromwell, Oliver, 494. 

Culdees, 195. 

Cum titulo ordination, required by 
Council of Trent, 414, 415. 

Cyprian, overrates bishops, 81, 216; 
concedes private right to read 
the Scriptures, 138; titnfus of, 
241; distinguishes ''teaching 
elders," 324; on deacons, 366; 
on ordination as involving pop- 
ular suffrage, 407, 408, 413. 

Daniel, 162. 

Davies, Samuel, 137. 

Deacons, a New-Testament title of 
office, 11, 94: probation, elec- 
tion and ordination of, 41, 132, 
407; male and female, 219: at 
Philippi , 245. 246 ; inheritance 
from transient offices, 287; mean- 
ing of term, 36(1, 399 ; synonyms, 
360, 361, 370: office in Jewish 
synagogue, 361 ; apostolic re- 
construction of office, 361-364; 
not preacliers, 362, 363 ; qualifi- 
cations of. 363 : office complete 
and definite, 365; duties of. 366- 
369, 397, 398 : superintended by 
"the seven," 410, 411. — Rela- 
tion to elders and trustees, 368, 
369 ; why the office should be 
kept distinct from the elder- 



INDEX. 



551 



ship, 370-374, and its functions 
not transferred to civil *' over- 
eoers of the poor," 37J-377 ; 
deacons should be supplement- 
ed bj deaconesses, 393-40 L; 
mode of ordination, 423, 424. — 
Li I(jua(inH'8 time, 313-315. — 
In pre/my, 26b, 200 ; post-apos- 
toiic modification of office, 200, 
207; episcopal exaltation of, 
215, 270, 328, 391, 392, 411; 
forbidden to marry, 372. — In 
Congreijationdlism, 436. 

Deaconess, 378-401 : a distinct office, 
378-381 ; qualifications, 381 ; or- 
ganization, 382-388 ; discontin- 
uance, 389-392 ; need for recon- 
struction, 392-401. 

Death, ends probation, 542; appro- 
priate religious ordinances, 543- 
546. 

Decade, substituted for week, 13. 

Delegates, of Prot. Episc. Church in 
America, 303. 

Demetrius, bishop of Alexandria, 
141. 

Demitting the ministry, 235. 

Demosthenes, 257, 4S4, 526. 

Denominations, characteristics of, 
471. 

Diocese, \i^ secular origin, and ec- 
clesiastical adoption by Con- 
stantine, 208, 270. 

Diocletian, persecution of the Chris- 
tians, 527, 528. 

Directory for Worship, on admis- 
sion to Lord's Supper, 99, 100 ; 
to sealing ordinances, 114; on 
order in public worship, 397; 
on marriage, 541. 

" Disciples, The." polity of, 435, 436. 

Discipline, its warrant in Scripture, 
42, and reason, 45; a "note" 
of a true Church, 65, 68 ; among 
Friends, and Baptists, 68 ; An- 
glicans and Lutherans, 68, 69 ; 
Romanists, 120, 121; dispensed 
in the synagogue, 86 ; implies 
examination of candidates for 
the Lord's Supper, 105; the 
baptized are subjects thereof, 
117-127; submission to it a 
prerequisite for church suf- 
frage, 128, 129: parity of 
ministers in, 255-201 ; nature 
of, 256, 257 ; not monopolized 



by apostles, 260, 261 ; requires 
ruling elders, 306 ; requires a 
qualified judicatory, 433, 438- 
441, 450-454; its relation to 
congregations, 462, 403 ; to 
heretical error, 491, 492; a 
liturgical ordinance, 526, 541. 

Discipline, First Book of (of Church 
of Scotland), 423, 436, 516; Sec- 
ond Book of, 345, 347, 516. 

Discipline, revised Book of (United 
States), on certificate of dis- 
mission, 118. 

Dismission, certificate of, 118. 

Disparities, alleged, of official rank, 
refuted, 249-276. 

Divine right, in Church polity, 
25, 26 ; derived from Script- 
ure, 37-45 j and from reason, 
45-47. 

Divine right of bishops asserted by 
Bancroft, 173. 

Divorce, when admissible, 538. 

Doddridge, Dr., 288. 

Dodwell, Dr., 248, 288. 

Dorotheus, 193. 

Dort, Synod of, 517, 518. 

Douglass, commissioner to West- 
minster Assembly, 347. 

Dwight, Dr., 288. 

EccLESiA, 48-79; derivation and 
meaning, 48 ; synonym, Sep- 
tuagint use, secular use in N. T., 
49; five technical senses in N. 
T., 49-56, 80. See Church. 

Ecclesiastical institute, the, 80-95 : 
the synagogue, not the temple, 
the permanent ecclesiastical in- 
stitute, 81, 82; perpetuated un- 
der the New Testament, 94, 214. 
See Synagogue. 

Edwards, Jonathan, difi'ered with 
Stoddard on terms of admis- 
sion to the Lord's Supper, 101 ; 
"prince of theologians,'" 153; 
his opinion of the polity of In- 
dependency, 443, 499. 

Eldad and Medad, 140. 

Elders, or presbyters, office derived 
from the Old-Testament ecclesia, 
11, 94, 144, 145, 203; in Script- 
ure convertible with " bishops," 
11, 232, 245-248, 273, 334; gen- 
eric sense, including "ruling" 
and "teaching," 307, 336-342; 



552 



l^DKX. 



plural in one church, 37, 284, 
285, 434; election and ordina- 
tion of, 132; commissioned to 
ordain, 273 ; division into 
"teaching" or "preaching" 
and "ruling," 224-226, 497; 
judicatory in synagogue, 55, 
86; in Christian Church, 100, 
249 ; controversy of Drs. Miller 
and AVilson, 306-308. — " El- 
ders " among " The Disciples," 
435. 

Elders, ruling, warrant for, 42, 
43; election of, 130; post-Ni- 
cene exclusion from councils 
and church sessions, and sub- 
ordination to deacons, 270 ; an- 
tiquity and permanence of of- 
fice, 277, 278, 280, 283, 284; 
origin of distinct oflSce, 281- 
283; its warrant, 283-299; ex- 
pediency, 299-306 ; historical 
authority, 306-333 ; qualifica- 
tions, 280, 334-359; rank, 342- 
354; duties, 354-359; prelatic 
suppression, 370, 371, 391, 392; 
mode of ordination, 423 ; share 
in ordination of other officers, 
424, 425 ; termed session or con- 
sistory, 433 ; relation to dea- 
cons, 368, 369, 373, 377, 395, 
396. — Substitutes in prelacy, 
303 ; in Methodist Ejjiacopid and 
Couyregntional churches, 304, 
305 ; former existence, and dis- 
continuance, in Independency, 
290, 305, 498, 499. 

Elders, teaching or preaching, dis- 
tinguished from ruling, 42, 43, 
287-299 ; permanency and life- 
tenure of office, 227-237 ; qual- 
ifications of, 232, 244 ; distinct- 
ively termed "bishop," 282; 
entitled to distinct ortlination, 
282, 346 ; inheritance from tran- 
sient offices, 287 ; med help of 
ruling elders, 300-302, 434, 435 ; 
functions and duties, 343-345, 
356 ; origin of special commis- 
sion, 364, 365 ; relation to dea- 
cons, 36S, 377.— In Methodist 
Episcopal Church, 304, 425, 426. 

Eldership, ruling, properly a life-of- 
fice, 345, 349-354; not rotary, 
346, 347; nor triennial, 348- 
354. 



Election, popular, of officers, 404- 
417 ; to be ratified by official 
laying on of hands, 417, 447, 
448. See Snffrnye. 

" Eminent domain," of the General 
Assembly, 520-522. 

England, Church of. See Anglican 
Church. 

Ephori, 320. 

Episcopacy, enhancement of, 326- 
329 ; diocesan, supported bv 
interpolations, 271; "divine 
right " of, asserted by Ban- 
croft, 173. 

Episcopate, the historical, of elders, 
11. 

Erasmus, indecision of, 76; on 

KarakeyiffOii), .384. 

Erastianism, 69, 541. 

Espousals, or engagement, in the 
ante-Nicene Church, 538, 539. 

Eusebius, Arianism of, 76; on title 
" apostles," 188, 189 ; on James, 
193; on succession in the min- 
istry, 210: on deacons, 366. 

Evangelists, primitive, belonged to 
the ministry of gifts, 213; were 
unordained, 213, 214; auxiliary 
to the ministry of witness and 
that of orders, 214. 215; with- 
out settled charge, 272 ; not su- 
perior to pastors or bishops, 
273, 274. 

Evangelists, lay (modern). 216, 217; 
proper function of, 220-222. 

Evangelists, among " The Disci- 
ples," 436. 

Exarchs, created by Constantine, 
271. 

Excommunication, power of, 345. 

"False Apostles," 182, 183. 

Family, the, unit of the Church, 57, 
HI, 112. 

Fasting, a liturgical ordinance, 423, 
525. 

First day of the week, sanctity of, 
44. 

Form (see Church Government), rela- 
tion to principles, 29 : second- 
ary to doctrine, 37, 38. 

" Form of Government," on the need 
for a form, 25; on election of a 
pastor, 12S: on perpetuity' of 
ruling elder and deacon, 348 ; 
provision for vacancy, 356 ; on 



INDEX. 



553 



judicatories, 507 ; on church 
ordinances, 525, 520. 

France, llet'onned Church of, " Dis- 
cipline," on elders and deacons, 
348 ; on deacons, ;^6(5, 367 ; Na- 
tional Synod of, 518, 519. 

Friends, their error, 61 ; anomalous 
position, 66; attitude toward 
the sacraments and the Script- 
ures, 67, 68; discipline, ()8 ; 
reject ministry of orders, 227, 

3;u. 

Funeral discourse, proper topics of, 
543. 

General Assemblies, warranted by 
Scripture, 45. 

General Assembly, the highest judi- 
catory, 457 ; constitutional im- 
portance of, 507-522 ; the pri- 
mary court, 508 ; its composi- 
tion, 509 ; not the creature of 
the Constitution, 509, 510; au- 
thor of the lower courts, 510; 
extent of authority to alter the 
Constitution, 510-513,- history 
of the institution, 514-520 ; 
power of "eminent domain," 
520-522 ; method of dissent 
from, 521. — In Scotland: On 
lay conference and pastoral 
preaching, 137. — In the United 
States : Origin of, 22 ; on apos- 
tasy of Church of Rome, 71 ; 
on process against baptized 
members, 117, 118; on election 
of ruling elders, 130 ; main- 
tains right of private judg- 
ment of the Scriptures, 138; 
on duration of eldership and 
diaconate, 348 ; on institution 
of elders and deacons, 369 ; 
on mode of ordination, 423; 
on recognition of non-Presby- 
terian ordination, 429, 430. 

Gifts, ministry of, 144, 213-215; su- 
pernatural, 144; natural, 220; 
exercise of, 136-142. 

Gill, Dr. (on Ezek. 43 : 11, 12), 34, 
35. 

Gillespie, George, commissioner to 
Westminster Assembly, 299, 
347; j)r(jtest against "lay-el- 
der," 306. 

Gleig, liishop, 177, 191. 

Government by church-members 



instead of representatives, rea- 
sons against, 437-454. 

"Governments" (1 Cor. 12:28), of 
divine appointment, 37, 441, 
442. Sec Church Government. 

Gregory of Nyssen, 193. 

(rregory Thaumaturgus, 268. 

Gregory (I.) the Great, condemns 
claim of primacy, 169; distin- 
guishes clergy and ruling elders, 
332. 

Griswold, Bishop, consecration of, 
199. 

Grotius, his rationalism, 76. 

Hadrian, 81, 204. 

Hall, Bishop, definition of "per- 
functory," 533. 

Hammond, Dr., 192, 248. 

Ilegesippus, 193. 

" Helps," an official term, 379. 

Henry VIII., 200. 

Henderson, commissioner to West- 
minster Assembly, 347. 

Hermas, The Pastor, 317-319; on 
deacons, 366. 

Herodotus, 257. 

Ilildebrand, "dictates," 166, 515. 

Hoadley, Bishop, 248. 

Hobart, Bishop, consecration of, 199 ; 
on confirmation, 249, 250 j term 
for baptism, 253. 

Hodge, Charles, Dr., definition of 
" Church," 10 ; on deaconess 
Phoebe, 380. 

Holland, Reformed Church of, grand 
consistory, 348 ; on deacons, 367. 

Honorius, Pope, 170. 

Hopkins, Samuel, 201. 

'•'Ignatian Controversy," 311, 312. 

Ignatius, on Onesimus, 185; on pres- 
byters, 189; presbyter-bishops, 
216; duties of a bishop, 268, 
269 ; recognizes bishop, presby- 
ters and deacons as coexisting 
in one church, 311-316; epistle 
to the Magnesians, 312, 313 ; to 
the Trallians, 314; greeting to 
deaconesses, 386. 

Independency, formerly had ruling 
elders, 305; its polity, 437, 442, 
443 ; origin, 448; translation to 
Congregationalism, 449 ; inter- 
relation of churches, 490; com- 
pared with Presbytery, 49-1-496 ; 



554 



INDEX. 



a changing system, 498 ; ordi- 
nntion, 500 ; councils, 501, 502 ; 
defects, 503, 504. 

Independent divines, on ruling el- 
ders, 288, 499. 

"Indifferent things," controversv, 
37. 

Induction, in Congregationalism, 
4«7. 

Infallibility, of the Church, alleged, 
18, 19: disclaimed, 21; of the 
pope, 169. 

Innocent, Pope, 166. 

Installation, 431, 432. 

Irenasus, teaches apostolic succes- 
sion through presbyter-bishops, 
131, 208, 209, 216, 321 ; infer- 
ence from his phrase "presid- 
ing elders," 321, 322. 

Isidore, on elders, 332. 

Itinerancy, of pastors, arguments 
against, 237-242; of licentiates, 
advisability of, 408, 417. 

Jacob, 420, 421. 

James, 191; no proof of diocesan 
episcopacy, 193; at the Council 
of Jerusalem, 486. 

Jansenists, 65. 

Jerome, definition of the Church, 18 ; 
temper, 76 ; concedes private 
right to read the Scriptures, 
138 ; on catechetical school of 
Alexandria, 141 ; on N.-T. 
" bishop " and " presbyter," 
208 ; excuses " apostle-bishops " 
249; disapproves confirmation 
by diocesan bishops, 254; on 
N.-T. deacons, 366 ; term for 
post-Nicene deacons, 371. 

Jerusalem, the church at, 471-478 ; 
persecution at, 473, 474. See 
Council. 

Jerusalem Chamber, 22. 

Jewish temple and ritual, abolition 
of, 11, 81. 

John, the apostle, 157, 163, 164,183, 
184, 191; also an elder, 228, 
247, 248, 319. 

Josephus, on the synagogue, S3, 84; 
on the Sanhedrin, 484. 

Joshua, 140, 421. 

Judas Iscariot, 107, 108, 132, 176, 
177. 

Judicatories, 433-454 ; the lowest, 
called session or consistory. 



433 : each church should have a 
representative tribunal, 46,433, 
434: church government should 
not be by the pastor alone, 434, 
435 ; nor by homogeneous el- 
ders, 435, 436; nor by church- 
members directly, 437-454. 

Judicatories in gradation, 455-506 : 
Presbyterian superior courts, 
457; reasons for their existence, 
46,47, 457-471; the scriptural 
argument, 471-488; argument 
from analogy and expediency, 
489-506. 

Julius, Pope, 171. 

Justin Martyr, his term for a pastor, 
319, 320. 

Keys, symbolism of, 256, 443-446. 

Kirk, 48. 

Knox, John, "notes of the true 
Cliurch," 64-66; particularized 
the term " Church," 66 ; insti- 
tuted rotary eldership, 347. 

Ladd, Dr., 288. 

Lambert, 366, 367. 

Lampridius, biographer of Alexan- 
der Severus, 402, 403. 

Lange, 158. 

" Lay-elders," an improper term, 
298, 306, 321-324. 

Laying on of hands, different script- 
ural meanings, 252, 253 ; apos- 
tolic, to confer charisms, 203, 

262, 263, 419,420; presbyterial, 
to ordain to oflBce, 204, 206, 262, 

263, 402, 411, 417-432; chal- 
lenged by early Independents, 
448 ; restored in Congregation- 
alism, 449. 

Lay-preaching, 137, 140-142. 

Le Clcrc, 55. 

Leo, Pope, 171. 

Levites, functions of, 84—86, 341 ; 
popular assent to consecration 
of, 404, 409, 410, 421. 

" Levites," term for deacons in post- 
apostolic Church, 266, 363. 

Libnnius, 529. 

Liberius, 169. 

Licentiates, testing of, 408, 409. 

Lightfoot, Bishop, on synagogues, 
89 ; on N.-T. " bishops," 245, 
248 ; on 1 Tim. 5 : 17, 288. 

Linus, 163, 164. 



INDEX. 



666 



Liturgy, classical origin and uhc of 
term, 52() ; apostolic transfer of 
the idea to tlie Christian minis- 
try, 526, 527 ; modern ecclesias- 
tical sense unscriptural, 530, 
532 ; true scriptural sense, 530, 
531; true elements, 532-534. 

Liturgy, Galliean, 528. 

Liturgies, written, post-Nicene ori- 
gin of, 527-529. 

Lord's Supper, the, privilege of bap- 
tized persons, 99; terms of ad- 
mission, 99, 100 ; judges of can- 
didates, 100; examination of 
candidates, 100-106; objections 
to examination answered, 106- 
110; actual participation not a 
prerequisite for sponsorship, 
115, 116; a liturgical ordinance, 
525, 526. 

Luther, allowed hierarchy in Den- 
mark, 12; negligent of formal 
discipline, 69 ; differed with 
Calvin on terms of communion, 
101 ; on the constituency of the 
Church, 135 ; hypothesis of ordi- 
nation, 135, 201; humility, 532. 

Lutheran Church, use of term 
"Church," 66; lacks provision 
for discipline, 68; possesses 
chief "note" of a true Church, 
69, 70; on deacons, 366, 367. 

MacKnight, James, Dr. (on 1 Tim. 
5 : 17), 295. 

Madison, Bishop, consecration of, 
19S. 

Magdeburg Centuriators, on elders, 
325. 

Magee, Archbishop, 175. 

Magnesia, 312. 

Marriage, civil and sacred, 538; 
ante-Nicene, 538, 539 ; post- 
Nicene, 539; under Charle- 
magne, 539, 540 ; under the 
Reformation, 540, 541 ; Direc- 
tory for Worship, 541 ; appro- 
priate ordinances, 541 ; publi- 
cation, 542. 

Marty rin, 241. 

Mather, Cotton, on ruling elders, 
305 ; on discipline in the Corin- 
thian church, 452. 

Matthias, election of, 132, 176, 410. 

Mcllvaine, Bishop, on "angel," 185, 
186. 



McMillan, John, 530. 

" Mccting-house," 49. 

Meianchthon, view of disci])line, 69. 

Methodist Episcopal, or Wesleyan, 
Church, spiritual life, 64 ; 
polity, 30-1, 340, 425; ordina- 
tion, 423, 426. 

Metropolitans, created by Constan- 
tine, 271. 

Michael Glycas, 193. 

Miller, Samuel, Dr., on sponsors, 
115; protest against "lay- 
elder," 306 ; controversy with 
Dr. Wilson, 306-308; Efteay on 
ruling elders, 332; on "the 
seven," 364. 

Milton, 227. 

Ministerial support, 238. 

" Minister," of the synagogue, 370, 
397. 

Ministers, of the word, N.-T. names 
for, 336 ; parity of, 46, 243-276 ; 
trial of, 467. 

"Ministry," 527, 530, 531. 

Ministry: Of witness (apostles), 
transient, 144-152, 214, 446. 
Of gifts, partly transient, 144, 
213, 214; partly permanent, 
215-218. Of orders, perma- 
nent, 144, 214, 219-226. See 
Succenaion. 

Morrison, 195, 196. 

Moses, " read in the synagogues," 
82_, 83. 

Mosheim, Dr., on "the seven," 364. 

Natural Religion, 13. 

Nature, light of, how authoritative, 
45-47. 

Neander, underrated ministry of or- 
ders, 227, 228. 

Nero, 168. 

Nice. See Council. 

Nicolaus of Rome, 254. 

"Notes of the true Church," 64-72. 

Officers of the church, election of, 
127-136; private judgment of, 
139, 140; divine calling and 
duties, 143, 144; classes. 144, 
145: apostolic and transient, 
145-172; permanent, 219-242. 

Onderdonk, Bishop, on "angel," 
185, 186. 

" Ordained " (Acts 14 : 23), 405-407. 



556 



INDEX. 



Ordinances of the Church, 149, 523- 
546. 

Ordinatio, comprehended election 
and laying on of hands, 402. 

Ordination to office, caution in, 41 : 
the act of presbytery, 44: com- 
parative unimportance of forms, 
201-20.3 : transmuted to a sacra- 
ment, 204 ; apostolic doctrine 
of, 205-207 ; perversion of, 216 ; 
not monopolized by apostles, 
261, 262; Scripture model of, 
265 ; by equals, of equals, 274 ; 
of teaching elder, 282 : com- 
bines popular and official acts, 
402, 403, 447, 448; not a sacra- 
ment or channel of grace, 403, 
418, 419, 422, 426-428; com- 
prehends five elements, 403, 
404; popular suflFrage or con- 
sent, 404—415 : the laying on of 
hands, 417-432 ; of deacon, rul- 
ing elder, teaching elder, 425, 
426 ; Presbyterian recognition 
of non-Presbyterian ordination, 
428-430 ; Methodist Episcopal 
usage, 426; Anglican theory, 
428 ; Roman Catholic theory, 
427, 430 ; Independent and Con- 
gregational usage, 500 ; relation 
to superior ecclesiastical courts, 
466. 

Origen, his Restorationism, 76 ; con- 
ceded private right to read 
the Scriptures, 138 ; licensed to 
preach before ordination, 141 ; 
refers to ruling elders, 324, 325 ; 
on deacons, 366. 

Overtures, 510-512; in Church of 
Scotland, 516. 

Owen, John, Dr., 153 ; distinguished 
and approved ruling elders, 288, 
299, 305, 498, 499 ; on " rota- 
tion " of elders, 347. 

Oxford Tractarianism, 14. 

Palmer, on ordination, 207, 430. 

Papal succession refuted, 161-172. 

Papias, 319. 

Parish, as constituted by Constan- 
tine, 270. 

Parity of ministers, 243-276 ; de- 
monstration from Scripture, 
243-249 ; in admitting to full 
communion, 24.3-255 ; in dis- 
cipline, 255-261 ; in ordaining 



to office, 261-265; in preaching, 
265-267 ; in jurisdiction, 267- 
276. 
Parker, Archbishop, irregular con- 
secration of, 195. 
Passover, 86, 107. 

Pastor, election of, 128-130 ; import 
of term, 237 ; permanence of 
relation, 237-242, 359; divine 
appointment of the office, 229; 
its identity in the N. T. with 
that of bishop, 273. 

Patmos, 162. 

Patriarchs, created by Constantine, 
271. 

Patrick, Bishop (on Ezek. 43 : 11, 
12), 34, 35. 

Paul, his qualification for apostle- 
ship, 151 ; eminence, 157; call 
does not imply a succession of 
apostles, 177", 178; use of the 
term "apostles," 178-180; pre- 
latic succession from him un- 
traceable, 194, 195 ; his ordi- 
nation, 221, 265; identifies 
" elders " and " bishops," 245- 
247 : relegates process of disci- 
pline to Corinthian elders, 259- 
261 ; relation to Timothy, 202, 
203, 262, 263 ; at the Council of 
Jerusalem, 486. 

Pearson, Bishop, 248, 315. 

Peter, alleged primacy refuted, 152- 
160 ; 191 ; alleged papal succes- 
sion from, refuted, 161-172 ; 
speech at Matthias's election, 
176; also an elder, 228, 247, 
248, 319 ; investiture with the 
keys, 444; at the Council of 
Jerusalem, 486. 

Philip, 261, 362, 363. 

Philippi, baptisms at, 116. 

Philo, on the s^'nagogue, S3, 84. 

Phoebe, a deaconess, 378-383. 

Photius, against confirmation by 
diocesan bishop, 254. 

Plato, 257, 484. 

Pliny, 380. 

Polycarp, identifies elders and bish- 
ops, 316 ; on duties of elders, 
316, 317 ; on deacons, 366. 

Popery, Variations of, 20. 

Potter, Archbishop, 288. 

Prayer, should be spontaneous, 46 ; 
a liturgical ordinance, 525, 534, 
536, 541, 543, 544; post-Nicene 



INDEX. 



bbl 



uniformity, 529 : John McMil- 
lan's, 530 ; requires premedita- 
tion, 5:50-532 : unavailing for 
the dead, 544, 545. 

Preaching, test of a true Church, 65 ; 
distinguished from teaching, 
338 ; a liturgical ordinance, 525, 
541, 543 ; requires premedita- 
tion, 531-534. See Lay-preach- 
itig. 

Preaching-friars, 142. 

Prelacy, has no warrant in the New 
Testament, 282, 283. American, 
derivation of, 194, 197-199. 
Anglican, at first political, 173. 

Prelatical succession, refutation of, 
173-200. 

Presbyter, or elder, convertible with 
bishop, 207-210; successors to 
apostles, 193. 194; permanent 
©fficers, 229, 230. See E/dem. 

Presbyter-bishop, 224 ; superseded 
by diocesan bishop, 216. See 
Bishop. 

Presbvterian polity, divine right of, 
37-47. 

Presbyterianism, unchurched by 
prelacy, 174, 175; Directory of, 
348; interrelation of churches 
in, 490-492 ; compared with In- 
dependency, 494-497. 

Presbyteries, original and present 
relation to overtures, 510-512. 

Presbytery, collective of district 
churches, 49, 505; in 1 Tim. 
4:14, 262-265; in Ignatius's 
time, 313-315; judicatory in 
gradation, 457 ; relation to 
Synod and General Assembly, 
509, 510 ; a name for the co- 
lonial General Assembly, 508, 
619 ; reconstruction in Church 
of Scotland, 515, 516. 

Prevoost, Bishop, consecration of, 
198. 

Prideaux, Dean, on the synagogue, 
83. 

Priest, not a scriptural term of 
office in the Christian Church, 
29, 226, 227, 390, 391, 402, 407, 
515. 

Priesthood, accomplished in Christ, 
81, 226;. application of the 
term to all believers, 12, 227, 
403, 404. 

Priestly, Joseph, 448. 



Private judgment, right of, 137-140. 

Probation, after death, 492, 501 ; 
ended by death, 542. 

Probation of candidates for ordina- 
tion, 265, 408, 409. 

Process, may bo instituted against 
the baptized, as well as full 
communicants, 117, 118; in the 
Corinthian Church, 259, 345. 

Profession, made in baptism, 67, 
118,123. 

Prophets, in th'e New Testament, 
213-215. 

Propitiation, an element in true 
church ordinances, 524, 625. 

Proseuchae, 82, 83. 

Purgatory, origin of doctrine, 545. 

Puritanism, 460, 461. 

Puseyism, 14, 15. 

Quakers. See Friends. 

Reading the Scriptures, private 
right of, 137-139; liturgical or- 
dinance, 625, 532, 543. 

Reference, from Antioch presbytery 
to council at Jerusalem, 479- 
488. 

Reformation, checked by state in- 
fluences, 173; neglected to re- 
construct the diaconate, 392, 
393 ; restored free representa- 
tive councils, 515. 

"Reformed" Church, discipline of, 
357. 

Reformers, indiflference to Church 
polity, 12. 

Regionary deacons, 371. 

Religion in education, 126. 

Remonstrants, 517. 

Reordination, 428-430. 

Representation, a principle of Church 
government, 46, 47 ; in judica- 
tories in gradation, 497, 498; its 
loss and restoration, 515. 

Revealed religion involves forms, 13. 

Ring, in marriage, 542. 

Robespierre, 13. 

Robinson, Edward, 55. 

Robinson. John, 448. 

Rome, 162, 167-170. 

Rome, Church of, in England, 14; 
sects in, 19, 20; declared no 
true Church of Christ, 64-00, 71, 
72 ; ordination, 430. 



568 



INDEX. 



Rulers in the Church, of divine ap- 
pointment, 442. 

Rutherford, commissioner to West- 
minster Assembly, 347. 

Sacraments, Reformers' doctrine, 
12; corruption of, 29 ; test of a 
true Church, 65, 67, 70; true 
nature of, 103; Anglican defini- 
tion, 427. 

" Sacrament of orders," 427. 

Sanctification, 545.' 

Sanhedrin, 314, 315, 484. 

Saybrook platform, 460. 

Schleusner, 55. 

Scotland, Reformed Church of, 515, 
516. 

Scots' Confession, 64, 65. 

Scripture examples, when binding, 
43-45. 

Scriptures, the Holy, private right 
to, 137-139; liturgical use of, 
525, 532, 543. See Word of 
God. 

Seabury, Bishop, consecration of, 
198. 

Seeker, Archbishop, 196, 197. 

Sectarian divisions, evil and good, 
61-64. 

Selden, 405, 541, 

Session, a council of teaching and 
ruling elders, 226; the judica- 
tory of a particular church, 
433, 505 ; its relation to the 
superior courts, 509, 510; its 
reconstruction in Church of 
Scotland, 515, 516. 

Sine titnlo ordination, allowed by 
Presbyterian Church, 415, 416, 

Singing, a liturgical ordinance, 525, 
543, 544. 

Smith, Snmuel Stanhope, 416. 

Socinianism, 71, 464, 492. 

South, 531. 

Sozomon, on deacons, 366. 

Sponsors, extent of privilege, 114; 
prerequisite qualification, 114- 
117. 

Stationary deacons, 371. 

Stephen, 362, 363. 

Stillingfleet, Bishop, on the syna- 
gogue, 89. 

Stoddard, 101. 

Stretching out the hand, gesture in 
voting, 402, 405, 406, 411, 414, 
417. 447. 



Subdeacon, 270, 371, 396. 

Succession in the ministry, true 
channel of, 131 ; the true doc- 
trine of, 201-218; essentials, 
ability and faithfulness, 203, 
205, 213, 214, 216, 217; order 
transmitted through presbyters, 
207-209 : exact order unessen- 
tial, and untraceable in historv, 
20, 210, 211; commission in- 
volved, 211, 212. See Papal 
Succession and Prelatical Suc- 
cession. 

Suffrage, popular, for church oflBcers, 
distinction between civil and ec- 
clesiastical franchise, 127, 128, 
143; theocratic type, 128,404; 
right of baptized church-mem- 
bers, 127-136, 404, 405, 409, 
410 ; prerequisite qualifica- 
tions, 128-130; permanence of 
result, 350 ; practiced in apos- 
tolic and ante-Nicene Church, 
405-408, 410-413; primitive 
mode, by stretching out the 
hand, 402, 406, 414; viva voce 
moiie ordered by councils, 414; 
by expressed or implied assent, 
350, 404, 417. 

Summerfield, 532. 

Sunday-school, under ruling elders, 
355, 356. 

Synagogue, a synonym of ecclesia, 
49: use in James, 49, 149; in 
LXX., 49, 55, 82; classical and 
patristic use, 82 ; antiquity of, 
82-84; presumably of divine 
institution, 84-90,300; perpet- 
uated in the New-Testament 
ecclesia, 81, 402, 403; in the 
Presbvterian system, 94, 95; 
approved by Christ, 90, 91 ; by 
apostles, 91, 279, 280; con- 
formed to Christian dispensa- 
tion, 90-94, 149, 360, 484; in 
organization and service model 
for Christian church, 11, 81, 
20.3, 214, 244, 351, 355, 358, 359, 
412, 446 ; deacons of, 361 ; Phi- 
lo and Josephus on, 83, 84; 
Prideaux on, 83 ; Lightfoot and 
Stillingfleet on, 89; Whately on, 
92; Vitringa on, 297. 

Synod, a judicatory in gradation, 
457 ; relation to General Assem- 
bly and Presbytery, 509, 510; 



INDEX. 



559 



reconstruction in Church of Scot- 
land, 515. 51»); a name for the 
colonial General Assembly, 508, 
519; of New York and Phila- 
delphia, stipulation of, 510. 

Synods, in time of Confitantine, 270. 

Switzerland, Reformed Church of, 
on deacons, 367. 

Teaching, distinguished from 
preaching, 338. 

Temple service, typical and tem- 
porary, 80, 81 ; abolished by 
Christ, 81, 91. 

Tertullian, his Montanism, 7fi; on 
the constituency of the Church, 
135; on Peter, 159; on the el- 
dership, 412 ; on marriage, 538; 
on the death of martyrs, 545. 

Testimonial deacons, 371. 

Thanksgiving, a liturgical ordi- 
nance, 525, 526, 544. 

Theodoret, 190, 195. 

Thirty-nine Articles, 68. 

Thomas, 191. 

Three orders in the ministry, not 
scriptural, 81, 265, 366. 

Thucydides, 257. 

Tillotson, Archbishop, 196, 197. 

Timothy, gift of, 203, 204, 262 ; or- 
dination of, 204, 262-265; not 
a diocesan bishop, but an evan- 
gelist, 271-276. 

TitnJi, 241. 

Titus, not a diocesan bishop, but an 
evangelist, 271-275. 

Tractarianism, 14. 

Trajan, 380. 

Tralles, 312. 

Trent. See Council. 

Trustees, 368. 

Turretine, 153. 

Tychicus, 276. 

Tyndal, 48, 366. 

Uniformity in Church service, ori- 
gin of, 529 ; not required in 
Scripture, 531. 

Urim and Thummim, 17. 

Ursinus, on baptism, 67. 



Ussher, Archbishop, 288, 315. 

Vestuymen, 303. 
Vigilius, 169. 
Virgil, 153. 
Vitringa, 297-299, 405. 

Wake, Archbishop, 315. 

Waldenses, had ruling elders, 332; 
on deacons, 366. 

Wardens, 303. 

Wardlaw, Dr., 289, 290. 

Washington, analogy of subdivision 
of labor at, 223. 

Watts, Dr., 534. 

Wesleyans. See Methodist Episcopal. 

Westminster Assembly, its princi- 
ples of divine right in Church 
polity, 39-47; adopted Second 
Book of Discipline, 347, 348; 
debate between Presbytery and 
Independency, 494; constitu- 
tion and authority of, 516, 517. 
See Directory for Worship. 

Whately, Archbishop, 92. 

Whitaker, Dr., 288. 

Whitby, Dr., 248, 288. 

White, Bishop, consecration of, 198; 
on primitive deacons, 367. 

Wicklifle, on deacons, 366. 

Widows (1 Tim. 5 : 3), 382-388. 

Wiseman, Cardinal, on alleged pri- 
macy of Peter, 159. 

William "IV., 14. 

Wilson, James P., Dr., controversy 
with Dr. Miller on elders, 306- 
308. 

Word of God truly preached and 
freely read, cardinal mark of 
a true Church, 65-72. 

Worship, public, duality of, in 0. T., 
unity of, in N. T., 80, 81 ; order 
in, 397 ; ordinances of, 149, 523, 
524. 

ZosiMUS, 169. 

Zwingli, on discipline, 68, 69 ; dif- 
fered with Calvin on terms of 
communion, 101. 



INDEX OF GREEK WORDS. 



'AyycXos, 183. 

'Ava^uiiTvpelv, 262. 

'Avafio?, 414. 

'Ai/TtA^(^«t9i 379. 

'Afio?, 414. 

'ATTooTToAof, 183 J aJToaToAot, 189. 

TvpaxKaSf 381. 

Ata, 263 j 5id irpo(t>r)Teia?, 262. 
AtaKOfeic xpaTre'^at?, 367. 
AiiKovo?, 360, 370, 380, 381. 

AtficUCTKCOl', 335. 

Ai6a/cToi, 336. 
AiKai<i>fia, 524. 
Aoy/JiO.Ta, 482. 
AoKe'M, 484. 
AovAos, 360. 

•E«KA.Y>(ria, 55, 103. 
'Eflero, 441. 

'Ev eK€ivj]T^ rjixipa, 474. 
'Eiricr/coirouvTev, 247. 

'ETTMr/COTTOVe, 245. 

'Hy4ofiai, 257. 
'Hyov/xei'O?, o, 364. 

©epaTTwv, 360. 

KoAw?, 293, 296. 

KaTaAeyeo-^oj, 384. 
KowtaJj'Tes, 293. 
Kv/3epvjj(T6i9, 442. 
Kvpia/cos, 48. 



AeiTOvpyovs, 531. 

MiXio-ra, 290, 291. 
Merd, 263. 
Mdx^os, 293. 

NeavicTKOt, 361. 
Netorepoi, 361. 

Oiicofio/ui^a'co, 159. 
'OfJiei^uiv, 364. 

nepwro-OTepo^, 293. 
Ile'Tpa, 158. 
Ilerpo;, 158. 
noi/jtcuVct), 257. 
HoAAd, 293. 
IIpeo'/SuTepioi', 264. 
npeo-^vrepoi, 309, 361. 
IIpea^vTepot -irpovraTes, 321. 
npoeo-To)?, 320. 
npoeerrwres, 292, 295. 
IIpoierTTj/xt, 257. 

l,vvay(iiyrj, 55, 82. 
l^ft.a, 459. 

TauTjj, 159. 

TtM^s, 293, 294. 

•YrrrjpeTTjs, 360, 370. 

XeipoSeaia, 402, 411, 417. 
XetpoToi'^erai^es, 405. 
XcipoTovta, 402, 411, 417. 



SCRIPTURE PASSAGES PARTICULARLY DISCUSSED. 



Isaiah 33 : 20-22, 32-34. 

Matt. 16 : 18, 157-159. 

Matt. 18 : 17, 54, 55. 

Matt. 28 : 18-20, 130-132, 211, 212. 

Acts 2 : 47, 102, 103. 

Acts 14 : 23, 132, 447. 

Acts 20 ; 28, 245. 

Rom. 16 : 1, 2, 378-381. 

1 Cor. 12 : 28, 36, 37, 143, 441, 442. 

2 Cor. 10 : 13, 192. 
Phil. 1 : 1, 245. 

1 Tim. 3 : 2, 335, 336. 

560 



1 Tim. 3 : 11, 381, 382. 
1 Tim. 4 : 14, 262-265. 
1 Tim. 5:3-16, 382-388. 

1 Tim. 5 : 17, 290-299. 

2 Tim. 1 : 6, 203, 204, 262. 
2 Tim. 2 : 2, 205, 206. 
Tit. 1 : 5, 246. 

Heb. 13 : 24, 442. 
1 Pet. 5 : 12, 247. 

Rev. 1 : 20 ; 2:1, etc. ("angel"), 
183-186. 



